A wolf's life
by fallyntalyn
Summary: A young girl finds herself in a new home at the Xavier Institute, and finds herself in all sorts of new relationships. I know the title is sucky, but if you could please read and review that would be great!
1. Chapter 1

Where to start... Well this story begins the same as all the others. A girl was born. A beautiful baby girl with pitch black hair and dark green eyes. She was thin, even as a newborn, and never grew very tall. She was an out-going girl, who loved to talk, run track and play football with the boys. She lived in a small town outside of Dayton, Ohio, with her mother and older sister. The girl grew quickly, and to everyone else, seemed to have a wonderful life. About 6 months after she turned 15 though, her mother got into a relationship with a man who she seemed to be very attached to. Though Kishi and her older sister Dia had been through a lot of their mother's boyfriends, this one was different. The girls didn't like him, but for some reason, she wouldn't believe them. The pair shied away from the man whenever possible, but all too soon, Deborah had Dan moving in with the girls. Kishi, the usually outgoing one soon began hiding from everyone. She kept running track, but pulled further and further away from her family. The two sisters were soon fighting all the time, and Deborah couldn't figure out why.

One night, after Dan had been living with the girls for a little over a month, Kishi was awoken by a hand on her mouth. Dan was sitting on her bed, and after a moment of staring into her scared eyes, began to attempt to rape her. Kishi reacted as any girl would and panicked, but Dan was much larger than her and was soon in a position to have his way with her. The noise from the struggle however, awoke Dia, who in a fit of rage launched herself at the man, knocking him off of her sister. However, at this point, Kishi's latent mutant ability manifested itself. After only a moment, Kishi had transformed into a huge werewolf-like creature. She stood, and as she saw Dan, attempted to kill him. Fortunately for him, however, Dia's mutant ability manifested itself at the moment she saw the wolf-like creature. Dia had always been scared of dogs, and her terror at the sight of the huge wolf-like creature set her off. Dia transformed into a huge werecat-like creature, almost as large as her sister.

The pair, having a natural hatred towards one another, began to fight, destroying their room, half the rest of the house, and knocking Dan into a coma in the process. Luckily Deborah wasn't home at the time, but when she arrived home the next morning, to find her house destroyed, her girls in naked heaps in the living room and Dan almost bled to death on their bedroom floor, almost fainted. A few days and numerous phone calls later, the two girls were dropped off at the airport with a bag of luggage each and a plane ticket. The girls were being sent to the Xavier Institute in upstate New York. A taxi picked them up at the airport, and even though the two had been together in close quarters for the last 6 hours, they hadn't spoken a word to each other.

Arriving at the school, the girls were greeted first by the Headmistress, Emma Frost, who assured both that they would be well taken care of here, but gave them a warning that if they started trouble, it was going to be hell to pay for them. Kishi, the meeker of the pair, simply nodded, and gave a few "yes ma'am's" and "no ma'am's". However, Dia, the more outgoing one, was almost rude with the Headmistress, who seemed to be a miffed, but somehow brushed it off. The girls were then sent inside to meet their tour guides.

There was a raven haired girl with bright green eyes, much like Kishi's, and a tall boy with dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes. Both stood expectantly as the two sisters entered.

"Hi!" the short dark haired girl chirped, seeming very perky and cheerful aside from her dark appearance and clothing.

Kishi watched the pair approach, her mind racing with what was to be expected from other mutants. As she'd never met another, at least not that she knew of, she therefore didn't know how to act around them. The young man, a tall, well built, dark haired teenager with a snotty look, simply winked at Dia and grinned at Kishi.

"Well, hello there ladies. Name's Hellion. And yours?" he said, with a very haughty tone.

Dia giggled and batted her long eyelashes at him. "I'm Dia, pleasure to-"

"No, your real name, not your... human name." he cut her off with a sharp tone.

"Oh," Dia said, unabashed. "Lynx." she smiled at him.

As he looked at Kishi for an answer, the girl next to him cut him off. "Bugger off Julian, I can do this myself. Besides, you're not supposed to be in the girl's dorm anymore after the last incident."

Hellion sighed and blew his bangs up and away from his eyes, to which they promptly fell back into. "Yeah, yeah, well I was told to help escort these ladies around the campus, so you bugger off, X."

The dark headed girl growled, a noise that clearly stated her high level of irritation with Hellion. But Dia stopped the fight with a simple grasp of his arm.

"C'mon," she said softly. "I'll let you show me around and leave these two to... whatever." She glared over her shoulder at her sister.

Kishi simply watched her leave, without emotion on her face. The other girl walked the rest of the way towards her, stopping only a few feet short. She seemed a bit awkward around a girl who looked so similar to her.

"My name is Laura. That was Hellion, and yes, he's a dick, and yes you can ignore him. Though sometimes it's hard to, he's such a piss off." She extended her hand towards Kishi. "What's your name?"

As Kishi took the offered hand and shook it, she could tell that Laura was sizing her up, as though she was trying to find out if she could beat her in a fight. "My name is Kishi."

Laura nodded and let go of Kishi's hand. "Do you have a mutant name?" she asked after a short pause.

Kishi just shrugged. "I don't know. I've been a mutant for all of a week. Haven't really had time to think about it."

Laura nodded again. "I hear ya, I don't really have a good one either." She waived her hand absently. "I'm sure we'll find you something. C'mon. Lemme show you around the campus, then we'll come back for your bags. No one will touch them, promise."

Kishi nodded and followed Laura as she showed her around. The mansion was huge, five stories, and Laura said there were several underground levels too. The girls wandered around the upper floors and Laura showed Kishi where most of her classes would be. The two girls talked about a lot of things, mostly the other students in the school and what some of their powers were. Laura shied away however when Kishi asked her what her power was.

"Why won't you tell me? It can't possibly be as bad as mine." Kishi said as they entered the cafeteria.

Laura shook her head. "It's... it's just lame."

A boy with short blonde hair and icy blue eyes was sitting at a table off to the left as the pair entered. Hearing the comment from Laura, he stood and wandered over quickly to the two girls. Smiling brightly at Kishi, he stuck out his hand to shake hers.

"Hi, I'm Bobby. Bobby Drake." he said brightly. "Or, you can call me the Iceman..." he murmured, making his hand very cold as he shook Kishi's.

"Hi, Bobby. I'm Kishi." she said, smiling shyly at him.

"I couldn't help but over hear-"

"Yes you could. Stop listening." Laura cut him off with a glare.

He chuckled. "Her power is regeneration, and she has these claws-"

He was cut off again as Laura shoved him back towards his table. "Knock it off, Drake." she growled.

"That's cool!" Kishi said. "I've got claws too, well when I'm in my... other form." she said the last with a blush.

Laura shook her head. "No. My claws come from my knuckles, and one on each foot. Here, see?" she extended her claws slowly, the silvery metal sliding from between her first and second and third and fourth knuckles. The one from each foot slipped without hesitation from her boot, the metal so sharp that it cut right through the leather of the boot.

"Does it hurt?" Kishi asked softly, reaching out to take Laura's hand and look at the places where the claws came out.

"Sometimes. But it heals so fast I don't notice it."

"That's really cool Laura!" Kishi said, smiling at the shorter girl.

"Like father like daughter," Bobby said.

"Oh, and what's yours, besides making things cold, Bobby?" Kishi said, chuckling at him.

"Heh, watch this." he said, as his entire body turned to ice.

Kishi oohed and ahhed, just like he wanted, giggling like a little kid. He chuckled back at her, showing off by making a flower out of ice and presenting it to her. She laughed out loud at his obvious flirting with her, but cleared her throat as she noticed Laura glaring at Bobby as he showed off. Bobby cleared his own throat and let his body fade back to normal, his clothes a little wet, but no other side effects other than that.

"So, what do you do, Kishi?" Bobby chuckled.

"Uh... I uh, can't show you." she blushed.

"Why not?" Laura asked.

"Cause I tend to loose my clothes." she murmured, a severe blush on her cheeks, as she looked down at the floor.

"Oh, I have got to see- Owww!" he rubbed his arm from where Laura had hit him.

"Well maybe after we get you a uniform." Laura said, putting her arm over Kishi's shoulders.

"A uniform?" Kishi asked, looking into the very similar green eyes of the girl next to her.

Bobby waived his hand. "Yeah, all the students get one. The professors teach us control of our powers as well as better ways to use them. So everyone suits up at learns how to properly use their powers. Course, we don't know what powers you have, so there's no way to tell what they'll have you do." Bobby shrugged. "But anyway, lunch is getting cold, why don't you guys go get some and come sit down with me?"

Kishi and Laura agreed, going to get some food and then going to sit down with Bobby, and a friend of his by the name of Forge.

"Forge?" Kishi asked.

"Yes."

"No... other name?"

"I do not like it." He said simply.

"Oh. Ok." she shrugged. She was sure she'd meet stranger creatures soon.

ONE WEEK LATER

Kishi had settled in quickly to the dorms, she was even rooming with Laura now, the two of them becoming fast friends. Laura had a pair of friends that she introduced to Kishi, by the names of Betsy Braddock and Clarice Ferguson, or better known as Psylocke and Blink. Everyone except Kishi mostly used their mutant names, but Kishi still hadn't settled on one yet. Laura had finally picked one that she liked, and she had settled on Talon. The four girls had become friends quickly, and Kishi was starting to enjoy living amongst so many mutants. Everyone here understood what she was going through, and everyone enjoyed her company.

Kishi didn't see Dia very often and when she did, the two girls hardly talked. If they did, it usually ended in typical sibling rivalry. Dia had stayed with Hellion and the older sister had become friends with his friends. The group was known for their hatefulness to everyone else except for a very limited number of mutants that they liked, but didn't hang out with their group. Kishi's group of friends was not included in this small number.

"So... The lesbos are hanging out at lunch again, what a shocker." Julian laughed as he walked past Kishi and her friends as they sat eating at a central table.

"Shut it, Keller." Laura, who hated Julian or Hellion the most, snapped.

"Ooooooh. The bird claw is getting pissed off. Watch it, X, I might get mad." He hissed back.

"And do what, scream at me?" she growled back.

X was a nickname that Laura hated, from the time when she very first came to the school. It was a shortening of the name X-23, the name she'd had from when she was used as a weapon to kill high priority targets, back when she was still under the control of Weapon X. It reminded her of how she didn't have the same upbringing as the rest of the kids in school, and how different she was. No one called her X unless they wanted to start a fight. And that was exactly what Hellion was getting at.

"Calm down, Talon. You know he's not worth it." Betsy said soothingly.

"Yes he is..." she growled, her claws starting to slip from her knuckles.

"Laura..." Kishi whispered, placing her hand on Laura's, fingertips in front of the dangerous claws that were slipping from the smaller girl's knuckles. This stopped Laura from extending her claws any further, and Laura's head turned slightly to look at her roommate.

"See? I told you they were lesbians!" Dia giggled, stepping from behind Hellion to scowl at her sister.

"Shut up, Dia."

"It's Lynx you dumb brat, and don't hide what you are." She snapped back at her sister.

"Whatever. Go away." Kishi growled.

Dia laughed and thankfully the group had had enough fun. They wandered off to their own table, and sat down, leaving the four girls in peace. A few seconds later, the two boys that Kishi had made friends with came to their table. Both Bobby and Forge looked pretty pleased with themselves.

"What have you two been up to?" Betsy said in her English accent.

"Oh, nothing. Its just a matter of what we know that you girls don't." Bobby said, grinning from ear to ear and taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Oh knock it off and just tell us. We're having a bad day and need some good news." Kishi sighed, taking a spoonful of her pudding.

Forge smiled and nodded. "They're setting up student teams." he chuckled.

"Wait, you mean like the X-men teams?" Laura pipped up.

Forge and Bobby nodded at the same time. "Yup," Bobby said through the bite of the sandwich he had in his mouth. "And everyone gets to pick their own teams. Then we all have to compete." he finished, after swallowing his bite.

"Compete for what?" Clarice asked in her cute small voice, her green eyes bright with wonder.

"To help the X-Men, duh!" Bobby snapped.

The four girls looked at each other. "Seriously?" was the next question, from all four at once.

Sure enough, the Headmaster, Scott Summers and Headmistress, Emma Frost announced the formation of student teams. The students started an uproar, but Emma used her mental powers to shout the large group down.

"Now, each team will be headed by a teacher, and each teacher will have full responsibility for training the team and also getting matches set up. Yes, you will be competing with each other for the possibility of working as a functional team with and without the X-Men. This will give us additional teams to help in both protecting the school as well as occasional sorties out in the field." Scott said, having to shout over the outbursts of the students.

Kishi looked at the group sitting at her table. "Us." she said after the teachers had made their announcements.

"What?" Laura looked at her. "You actually want to do this?"

Kishi nodded. "Yeah! Fighting is about all I'm good for, so let's do it! It would give us something to do when we're bored right?"

The rest of the table nodded and started to talk all at once. But it was set. They even came up with a name and a teacher they wanted.

"Wolverine won't go for it." Laura said after the rest of the group had decided on him.

"Dude. Evolution needs the best, and Wolverine's the best. He's got the most experience, and you know he'd train our butts off." Bobby perked up. "As much as I don't think he'll be easy on us, I think he's the best choice."

"You're damn right I'm the best choice. And no one else is training my little girl." Wolverine growled as he walked past the table.

And so it was set. The group name was to be Evolution, and Wolverine was the their teacher. The team lead would be decided after the first training, but it looked to be up between Bobby and Kishi. Betsy had some ideas for uniform colors, and Clarice was set to start sewing them together with the help of Professor Hank McCoy, who outfitted all of the students with their uniforms. The next day was to be their first training session, and Wolverine wanted them there at 4:30 am. The group whined, but knew that it was what they asked for.

Clarice and Betsy set off for Professor McCoy's office so that they could get the uniforms set up before the next day, while the rest of the group sat around debating Kishi's mutant name. Bobby thought she should be called Vicious, Forge thought she should be called Fang, and Laura thought she should be called Feral. Betsy and Clarice put in their two cents through Betsy's mental capabilities, of Primal and Wolven, respectively. Kishi wrestled with the idea of both Wolven and Feral, but finally decided on Feral as her mutant name. Laura seemed pretty pleased with herself, but didn't say anything about it.

The next morning, a haggard looking Evolution stood in front of Wolverine in the control room of the Danger Room. "Good morning." he growled, looking at the group with what was clearly disappointment. The uniforms looked sharp, but the kids in them looked as though they'd been put through the wringer already. "We're just going to run a single simulation, then you guys are going to run a mile."

Kishi sighed. "A mile, that's it?" she said in what seemed like relief.

The rest of the group glared at her as Wolverine smiled. "Ha, Ok, then two miles."

The rest of the group groaned, but Kishi looked around as though she hadn't done anything wrong. The group however moved into the elevator and went down to the danger room. It was a huge blank room with metal panels everywhere and nothing else. The simulation would begin as soon as Wolverine gave the go ahead. Which he did, giving the kids a nighttime simulation, with the only goal to be to survive against the sentinels that were appearing in the city scape.

"Everyone stay together, I don't think any of us are strong enough to take on a sentinel by ourselves." Kishi said out loud, just before she transformed into her giant wolf form.

Feral in her wolf form was well over 9 feet tall, with black fur with silver tips in it. Her head was that of a wolf, with a long thin muzzle and big, forward facing green eyes. Her large ears with their silver tips were set on the top of her head, and a large black nose sat at the tip of her muzzle. The wolf body continued until down to her hands, which were much like human hands, but with thick pads on the palm and finger tips, and the fingers were thicker and had long, thick claws where the fingernails should be. The legs differed slightly, with the joints being a little offset, so that the beast could stand on it's hind legs, but ended with normal looking wolf paws. The body ended with a long and bushy tail with a silver tip, creating the look of a less than horror movie werewolf.

~Psylocke, can you set up a mental link?~ She said, talking to the purple haired girl mentally.

Psylocke nodded, then closed her eyes as the purple butterfly shapes appeared next to her temples as she used her power. "This might feel a little weird, guys..." she murmured as the connection started.

At first it was a jumble of everyone's thoughts, but very quickly everyone learned to keep their thoughts to themselves and the group moved off, keeping Iceman and Kishi in the lead. They moved quickly to an alley off to their left, knowing that the buildings would shield them a small amount from the Sentinel's vision.

~Ok. Here's the deal. We have to make it from point A to point B right? So we stay together, stay low, and if we get into a corner, Bobby... er.. Iceman, I want you to blast the floor with your ice, make it slicker than anything else, and then concentrate fire on joints, knee, elbow, head to neck. Stuff like that. Talon, I want you to try and cut through the arms, joints are probably weakest, so target them. Forge, you follow Talon's lead. Your suit will keep you safe from most of the effects that the sentinels can dish out. Blink, I want you and Psylocke in the back, you two don't have many offensive powers, and Psy, your powers won't work on the sentinels anyway. I'm not sure how much damage I can take, but I'll do my best to keep them from getting you two, Ok?~ Feral's "voice" was much like her normal voice, but it sounded determined, like she could do this.

The entire group nodded, letting Feral lead them up the fire escape. The sentinels were tall, but they should be pre-programmed to look for the group on the ground, since none of the group could fly. They moved quietly across the roofs, Blink teleporting them from rooftop to rooftop, as quickly as they could. The short jumps however, were taking their toll on the pink girl, and soon she dropped to her knees halfway across a rooftop. Feral heard her hit the ground, and turned quickly. Rushing over, the giant wolf leaned down to touch Blink's face.

~You alright?~ she said mentally while whining softly out loud.

Blink shook her head. "I've never been pushed like this, I'm exhausted..." she murmured.

~It's alright, I'll carry you. C'mon.~ The giant wolf easily picked up the small girl, cradling her in one arm as she looked to the rest of the group. ~Iceman? Can you make a bridge?~ she said to the ice covered man at the front of the group.

He nodded and then started forming the ice bridge across the two rooftops. As he was about halfway across however, a sentinel's head slammed through the ice, knocking him back onto the rooftop and almost unconscious.

"Targets located." it said in it's computerized voice. "Capture all targets." it finished, reaching out a hand to grab Iceman.

~Talon! Grab Iceman!~ Kishi yelled, putting Blink down and preparing to leap for the huge metal robot.

Talon slid across the rooftop, grabbing Iceman and tossing him out of the way of the hand, then turning and slicing through the hand with her claws. The sentinels fingers dropped off, and it pulled back it's hand, giving Talon enough time to pull a stunned Psylocke back out of the reach of the sentinel. Feral raced across the rooftop, leaping the ten feet easily to the sentinel's head, using her powerful claws to rip gashes in the metal where the metal giant got its visual input from. The metal monster reached up to try and grab Feral off of its face, but the hand that it was using was quickly cut from its arm as Talon leapt up to help Feral. The two were on the metal man's shoulders as they both dug their respective claws into the neck of the metal creature, and lifting with all their strength attempted to rip it's head from it's neck. The giant wolf could lift more and so the head of the sentinel rolled towards Talon, who skittered around it to stand next to Feral. The pair smiled at each other before Feral scooped Talon up in her arms and leapt the twenty feet from the falling sentinel's shoulders to the roof top. Putting Talon down, the simulation dissolved around them, and Wolverine's voice came over the loud speakers.

"Evolution, get upstairs, run has been canceled." he sounded very angry.

The group took the elevator upstairs to the control room, and stood there as Wolverine finished shutting down the danger room. He sighed heavily and turned towards the group, who were panting. Feral had transformed back into her human form, but looked hardly winded.

"What the hell was that?" Wolverine growled. "The object of the mission was to get to the point I had set up, not to engage the sentinels."

Feral stepped forward at a look from the rest of the group and stood upright in front of Wolverine. "Sorry, but it was attacking us. Did you want us to just run from it?"

Wolverine scowled at her. "So you're the leader, huh? Fine, you'll take the heat. Yes, you were supposed to run from it. It was about evading, not offense. You were not to hunt down the sentinels, you were supposed to get from point A to point B without being seen."

"Excuse me, sir," Feral slurred the last word. "But we did a pretty damn good job. The rooftops were the easiest way to get there, and we didn't get seen until you had that one sentinel pop up and find us there. I heard them moving, you had them heading our way, there was no way we were getting to... _point B_ without encountering one. If the mission was evasion, then you should have specified. We would have tried another tactic." Feral glared at the taller man, her green eyes flaring with anger. "You gave us a mission, to get from point A to point B. We didn't get there because you cut the simulation short. We would have made it. And the whole team I might add."

Wolverine was rendered speechless at this point. He finally cleared the shocked look off of his face and nodded. "But I didn't end the simulation. You guys had made it to point B."

Feral turned back to the group and grinned from ear to ear. The group had passed their first test.

But Wolverine had something else to say. "And that bit of team work between you and Talon there to take it out was outstanding. It takes me quite a bit to take down one sentinel, and I didn't think that six kids would be able to take one down. And your plan, Feral, was the best one that I would have been able to come up with, though you really need to learn how to put all members of your team into play. Blink could have easily teleported the sentinel away, and though Psylocke's capabilities only affect living things, she could have created a distraction for the sentinel." He chuckled softly and shook his head again. "But that's about all I've got. The run was canceled due to you achieving the goal. I didn't think you'd make it, so I figured I'd punish you before hand." He turned his back on them at that point, the discussion over.

The group surrounded Feral and all started talking at once, congratulating her. They walked out of the room, Laura the last one out, the only one not talking her head off. The conversation was cut short however, by the clearing of a throat at the elevator doors. Hellion and his gang were standing there, minus the typical Dia draped all over Hellion's arm.

"So, the lesbians found some dick... Nice." Hellion mouthed off.

Bobby and Forge both glared at Hellion. "Fuck off, Julian." Laura growled from behind the guys.

"Awww, now is that anyway to talk to the guy who's going to be your superior?" Hellion laughed as the rest of his gang stalked out of the elevator, all of them looking ready to fight. "Not that I'm not already."

Feral snarled and glared at Hellion. "Why don't we settle this with a match, us versus your team, see which one does better?"

Hellion looked at the small black haired girl in front of him and laughed. "Seriously? You think you can take us?" he shook his head. "I highly doubt it."

"And besides, they are late for their danger room session." Emma Frost's voice came from the elevator. "Get going, Julian." she snapped, causing the students to move down the hall towards where Evolution had just left.

Emma walked behind the group as Evolution split to let them pass, narrowing her eyes at Feral as she passed. "But don't worry..." she whispered, just loud enough for Feral to hear. "You'll get your match." she smiled with false sweetness at the much shorter girl.

Feral looked at her as though she was crazy, but let the Headmistress pass. The rest of Evolution went to stand behind her and watch the Hellions walk into the danger room where they could hear the surprised voice of Wolverine greet the Headmistress. Feral finally stopped staring at the door after a moment and turned to her group.

"Forget them. We'll beat the crap out of them when we face 'em." she said, heading to the elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

THREE WEEKS LATER

The team had won their first match against the Corsairs. Evolution was on par with where Wolverine wanted them to be. They'd only had to do one running session, which made the rest of the team happy, but made Kishi feel as though they needed to do some running. She had taken to trying to get the team to run about a mile every night, but so far, only Laura had been running with her. Laura however, thought it was unfair that Kishi was a trained track runner from back at her high school. And occasionally, Kishi would transform into the wolf creature and run the mile in just a few minutes. Which was what had Laura pissed off today.

"C'mon, Laura. I only do it to see if you can keep up with me!" Kishi whined, putting her arm across Laura's shoulder.

Laura shrugged off Kishi's arm, and growled. "I don't care. You know I can't, I hate it when you do that." she snapped.

Kishi stopped walking and just stared at Laura's back, as the shorter girl kept walking. Betsy came up from behind her and put her arm around Kishi's shoulders. "Don't worry about it. She's just got something on her mind." she chuckled.

Kishi looked up at the taller Betsy, but shrugged and nodded. "I guess. You're the psychic." she chuckled.

Betsy laughed. "Yup. But I'm a good psychic. I don't go around spilling everyone's secrets..." she murmured to no one in particular.

Kishi gave her a funny look, but the group moved on to the cafeteria. Laura was already in line, getting her food. The three girls followed Laura, then all four girls went to the table where Forge and Bobby were already sitting. They sat down and started talking, but after a few moments, Bobby went quiet. Kishi was the first to notice, since she was sitting next to him.

Nudging him with an elbow, she looked at him sideways. "You ok?" she asked, grinning at him.

He blinked furiously at her, Kishi noticing a small blush on his cheeks. "Ye... yeah. Are you wearing a new perfume?"

She cocked her head at him and then frowned slightly. "No... just the regular stuff, why?"

He grinned sheepishly and shook his head. "Just... uh... you smell good."

Kishi quirked an eyebrow at him, but just then Laura's growl cut off the conversation. She was glaring at Bobby as though he'd done something wrong.

"What?" Bobby squeaked, not meeting Laura's eyes.

"Oh, why don't you just jump her right here!" Laura snapped, her green eyes like fire on Bobby's blue ones.

Kishi stared at her room mate, with shock plain on her face. "Laura, what's wrong?" she said quietly.

"Nothing. He's just drooling all over you like a dog." she snapped back, then looked at Kishi with an apologetic look. "Sorry. Didn't mean it like that." she said sheepishly.

Kishi shook her head and looked between Bobby and Laura again and again, but was interrupted as Wolverine walked slowly over to the table. He stood behind Laura's chair, just staring at Kishi for a long moment before he finally cleared his throat.

"Everything ok here?" he said hesitantly.

Kishi could see that he too had a soft redness to his cheeks, and she could see his nostrils flaring as though he was smelling something he liked. Kishi grinned at him and nodded, something about him was making her feel like she shouldn't, like she should be kissing someone, or doing things that required a bed with someone.

"Yeah, we're... fine." she said softly.

Laura suddenly looked up at her father with a shocked look on her face. He took his eyes away from Kishi's long enough to look back at his daughter with that same sheepish look on his face that Bobby had. Her expression turned quickly from shock to anger and a low growl started in her throat. Wolverine took a step back, clearing his throat and excusing himself quickly, then turned and moved quickly away from the table, shaking his head as if to clear it of something. Kishi watched him walk away, confused by what had just happened between father and daughter. She looked at Laura for the answers, but the dark haired girl had turned back to her food. After a few moments though, Kishi caught her, both looking at her, and noticing the same nostril flare on Laura that she'd seen on Wolverine. Laura looked away quickly but not before Kishi noticed the blush on her normally pale skin.

Kishi finished her food quickly, then looked at Laura, her mind racing with what she was about to do. "Laura, you need to finish your English history assignment for Professor McCoy, lemme help you with it, Ok?"

Laura sighed. "I really don't want to do that right now, can we do it later?" she whined, that blush still on her cheeks.

"Well it's the best time. Here's this, if we get it done, I'll let you spend the rest of the night watching movies."

Laura sighed again, her eyes rolling in her head. "Fine." she growled.

"C'mon then," Kishi said, picking up her tray and taking it to be dumped.

Laura followed the taller girl, doing the same with her tray, and then following Kishi in silence to their dorm room. As the two girls entered, Kishi held the door open for Laura who promptly wandered in and started finding her books. Kishi closed the door behind Laura, then stood there, leaning on the closed door for a long moment before clearing her throat. Laura paused, then slowly turned her head to look at Kishi, and Kishi watched as Laura's nostrils flared again, breathing in deeply and the blush was once again on Laura's cheeks. Laura finally met eyes with Kishi, but then promptly looked away.

"Laura, what's wrong with you?" Kishi said softly, pushing herself off of the door and moving slowly across the room to Laura's bed, where the smaller girl was sitting.

Laura shook her head. "Like I said, nothing really." She seemed to flinch at Kishi's closeness, and scooted further back on her bed, pulling her book and her knees up to her chest.

"I don't believe you." Kishi said softly as she sat down on the end of Laura's bed. "Something's bothering you, you've never been so hateful towards Bobby, and Professor Logan just about got his head ripped off by you. I saw your claws come out, you were pissed at something he was doing."

Laura trembled and shook her head. "I... I don't... I don't know. Something's in the air. There's like this scent..." Laura looked up at Kishi with wide eyes. "It's coming from you."

Kishi looked at Laura with one eyebrow up and a confused frown on her face. "What do you mean?"

Laura trembled again. "I... it's some smell, coming from you that is making me... possessive."

"Possessive? What the hell does that mean?" Kishi said, still confused.

"I don't know!" Laura snapped, then lowered her tone. "I don't know... It just makes me... want..." she trailed off and trembled even harder than before.

Kishi moved closer still to Laura, placing a hand on her ankle, then looked at Laura with pleading eyes. "Please. Just tell me. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but everyone's acting weird today. And I feel weird... I feel like... Like I want someone to take me and just take me... but that's weird right?" Kishi shook her head and then stopped. "Wait... What do I smell like? How does it make you feel?" she asked again.

Laura finally squeezed her eyes closed and then opened them slowly to look at Kishi. "It makes me want you... Like I smell the scent of fresh cut grass, and trees, and a hint of the wolf, and the smell you give off when you're asleep, when you're peaceful."

Kishi looked away from Laura after hearing this and then stood quickly, moving back. "Oh, my, god..." she whispered, suddenly putting her hands to her face in shock. "I'm... I'm.. a.. oh my god..." she said as she slumped to the side, falling half on her bed and then half on the floor. Tears started to pour from her eyes as she realized what was going on. She sobbed quietly into the bed for a moment as Laura stared on in shock.

Laura recovered quickly though and moved from her curled up position on her own bed, to move onto the floor next to Kishi, putting one arm around her friend's shoulders. "What? What is it, Kishi?"

Kishi shook her head and tried to bury it further in the blanket on her bed, but a gentle shake from Laura got her to lift her head. "I'm... I'm an animal..." she sobbed, falling into Laura's arms, as the shocked girl simply sat there.

"Wh... what do you mean?" Laura asked after a long moment of inhaling the scent coming from the girl in her arms.

"I'm... I'm in heat! I'm an animal!"

That explained it.

"Oh, baby, you're not an animal..." Laura whispered, burying her nose in Kishi's hair and breathing deeply, knowing now what the feelings she was having were from.

"Y-y-yes I am!" Kishi squeaked, her voice harsh from the tears pouring down her face. "I... I'mmm in h-h-he-heat just like an animal, I'm an animal!"

Laura rubbed her friend's back, and rocked her gently back and forth. "No, you're just a mutant. It's not something you can help. It's ok. I promise." she whispered to her upset friend.

Kishi finally looked up at Laura, her eyes blood shot from the tears. "You mean it?" she whispered, still leaning heavily on the smaller girl.

Laura nodded, moving a hand to brush the long black bangs out of Kishi's eyes and then brush away a tear. "Of course, I think you're perfect, so I might be biased." she chuckled softly.

It was Kishi's turn to blush as the soft touch of her room mate made her shiver and close her eyes. Laura however, didn't pull her hand away, she simply let Kishi rub her cheek into her palm, the desire to kiss the slightly larger girl almost too strong for her to bear. But she didn't have to make the first move.

As Kishi's eyes opened back up, she locked eyes with Laura, and ever so slowly moved in to where the two girl's lips were almost touching. Laura started to pull back, sure that Kishi wouldn't want to do this if she wasn't under the affects of her heat, but Kishi suddenly closed the distance, and the two girls found themselves kissing passionately. Laura gave into the kiss instantly, her convictions gone in the split second passion of the kiss that she was being subjected to. Kishi moaned softly into the kiss, opening her mouth and licking firmly across Laura's lips until the smaller girl opened her own mouth, then Kishi moaned again as their two tongues met, little jolts of electricity coursing down her spine as she kissed her best friend. Laura entangled her fingers in Kishi's hair, pressing their lips more firmly together, and controlling Kishi's head movements. Her other hand she drug around to run her fingers down Kishi's neck, then to her chest to grab firmly onto her breast, squeezing firmly the round mound. Kishi's back arched, but at this point Laura was so wrapped up in the scent of Kishi's heat, that she was being aggressive with the larger, but weaker girl. Kishi might be able to out run Laura, but Laura was stronger than the slightly taller girl by quite a bit.

Kishi submitted quickly to the movements of Laura, letting the stronger girl move them upwards to the bed without protesting. They never broke the kiss however, and Laura moved on top of Kishi, letting her hands roam all over the thinner girl's body. Kishi simply moaned louder, her hands reaching up finally to touch Laura's face gently, but Laura wasn't having any of the gentleness. She roughly kissed Kishi, making the girl squeak slightly, then moved her lips down to nip and bite at first Kishi's jaw, then the thinner girl's neck, her hands still squeezing parts of Kishi's body, making the girl moan again. As Laura broke the kiss, Kishi found herself biting her own lip to keep from making too much noise as the smaller girl roamed all over her body. Laura paused for a moment and sat up, pulling Kishi up and kissing her again as she pulled Kishi's shirt up, and then broke the kiss for a second to pull the shirt off of her, kissing her again to reach around and undo the thin girl's bra. Once it was undone, Laura roughly pushed Kishi back to the bed, making her squeak in indignation. But the squeak was soon turned back into another moan as Laura leaned down to kiss Kishi's chest and then slowly work her way down to where she was nibbling at the girl's small nipples. Moving back up to Kishi's upper chest, Laura bit down in one place particularly hard and sucked firmly, pulling back after a second, to admire her handy work.

"Mine..." she whispered, admiring the small but firmly purple hickey that she had just placed on her room mate's chest.

Kishi nodded in response, too breathless to say anything in response. Just as Laura was getting ready to lean back down again, there was a knock at the door.

"Go away!" Laura snapped at the door.

"Really now. Your thoughts are so loud that I can hear them downstairs and you two are making so much racket that Nightcrawler can hear you! Let me in!" Betsy snapped.

Laura growled, but Kishi put her finger to Laura's lips. "Ok, just a second." she called to the door, grabbing her shirt and throwing it on as Laura let her sit up.

Laura looked at Kishi pleadingly, but sighed and ran her fingers through Kishi's hair, trying to make the thick locks sit down from where she had messed them up. Kishi smiled at Laura and kissed her softly again, giving her wink after breaking the short kiss.

"Later, I promise." she whispered, getting up off the bed and moving quickly to the door. "Betsy! So glad you could-"

"Cut the crap." Betsy said as she shut the door behind her. "What the hell is going on here?" she snapped as she grabbed for Kishi's shirt. Pulling it back far enough to see the purple hickey on Kishi's chest, she shook her head. "Wow... I didn't realize that it was that bad Laura."

"It is, you're interrupting, go away." Laura said, pointedly.

"I don't know if it's right or wrong, but you need someone to keep you two quiet. And to give you cover. I'll start a movie." Betsy said, letting go of Kishi's shirt with a final touch of the girl's neck, and moving through the room to the DVD player in the corner.

Kishi blinked a few times at the touch that Betsy gave her, but decided to ignore it. She grinned at Laura then raced back to the bed, wrapping herself firmly around Laura as she sat down next to her on the bed. The pair started kissing again as Betsy started the movie, though Betsy had no plans to watch the movie either. She simply sat down on Laura's bed, and stared at the pair as they made out. Kishi felt the eyes on her as she kissed Laura, and it made every kiss sweeter.

The pair made out as Betsy continued to act like she was watching the movie. After about 30 more minutes, Betsy sighed heavily.

"Is that all you two are going to do?" She asked with irritation.

Laura growled from her place biting Kishi's neck, but mumbled something from around the skin clasped between her teeth.

"What?" Kishi sighed.

"Nothing!" Laura snapped. "Just... forget it." Laura let go of Kishi, spinning around on the bed and facing the TV.

"Laura? I didn't mean to intrude." Betsy said quietly. "I'm sorry. If you want, I can go be in the bathroom."

Kishi shook her head, but Laura looked at Betsy as though that was the best thing she'd said all night. Kishi shoved Laura, who rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. Just sit there." she pouted.

Betsy giggled slightly, but stifled it quickly. Kishi looked at Laura with pleading eyes, and Laura finally sighed heavily, but nodded. Kishi giggled like a small child and clapped her hands, then got up off of her bed, rushing across the room to where Betsy was sitting. Betsy tried to hide her smile from Laura, but as Kishi wrapped her arms around Betsy's neck and began to kiss her softly, she couldn't help but grin at the very attractive girl that she was now making out with. Kishi kissed Betsy for a long moment, before grabbing her hand and dragging her over to the other bed, where she kissed Laura again, the pair wrapping themselves around each other again. Betsy simply began to kiss on Kishi's neck and ran her hands all over the shorter girl's body. As the three began their love triangle, they all knew that this night was the first of many to come.


	3. Chapter 3

FIVE MONTHS LATER

"Oh, god... Not another history test..." Kishi sighed and moped as she trudged down the hall, literally dragging her book-bag behind her on the floor.

Betsy laughed and nudged up against the hunched over, shorter girl. "Yes, there's one every week, love."

"My brain feels mushy." Laura said from the other side of Kishi as the three girls walked slowly down the hall towards the lunch room.

Kishi nodded. "Mine too."

Betsy laughed again, shaking her head. "You two act as though this is a surprise. We have a test every week in Headmistress'... boy, that's hard to say... Frost's class. You know she's a stickler on history. Especially mutant history." sighing heavily and looking at the two girls, she continued. "But this is all stuff you guys would know if you studied instead of making out all the time..." she said, just loud enough for the girls to hear her.

The whole school seemed to know that the three girls were "involved" some how, but no one dared to say anything to Kishi since the first time someone had gotten up the guts. An angry 9 and a half foot tall werewolf was not something to be messed with, or picked on.

Laura and Kishi both growled simultaneously and glared at the taller purple haired girl. They hated it when Betsy brought up the pair's relationship. They hadn't quite gotten it figured out yet, but the pair knew that they were together. Kishi had gotten up the nerve to tell Laura that she loved her, but Laura hadn't managed to say it back yet. Kishi knew that Laura was still trying to figure out what she was sure of, and her feelings. She had caught Laura cutting herself the other day and knew that the shorter girl was confused.

Kishi suddenly put her arm around Laura's shoulders as they walked down the hall. Still dragging the book bag, she grinned at the slightly shorter girl.

"We'll get through it. We'll study extra hard tonight." she winked down at Laura.

Laura grinned from ear to ear, knowing what the "extra studying" really meant. Betsy sighed and rolled her eyes. The three girls were quickly joined by Clarice as she funneled with the rest of her class out of Professor McCoy's math class. As usual, Clarice looked as though she'd just been through her favorite class. She was always so excited about learning.

"Hey guys!" she chirped. "So I've got like a ton of homework for Professor McCoy. He's given us like half a chapter of questions to do. Have I mentioned I love math?"

Kishi rolled her eyes and laughed at the pink girl. "Only about a bazillion times, Clarice. You kill me with that, ya know?"

Clarice giggled and pushed Kishi gently. "Oh get over it."

Kishi paused as she realized that Laura had stopped and was turned looking down the hall that they had just passed. "Laura?" she called back to her girlfriend.

Laura turned suddenly and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, got distracted." She jogged the few steps to catch up with the three other girls.

Slipping under Kishi's extended arm, she pulled Kishi's arm around her throat. Kishi smiled and hugged the shorter girl to her, then quickly let her arm slip down off of Laura's shoulders. The four girls were joined by both Bobby and Forge, coming out of Professor Summer's class, and the group of friends went to the lunch room to eat.

In the lunch room, the Professors announced the date of the final match. It had become quite a spectacle for the other students, and some were even managing to make bets behind the teacher's backs on who would win. The odds that Evolution would win the whole shebang had started low, but after three consecutive wins, and thorough beatings at that, they only had the Hellions to face. Wolverine had them doing training sessions three times a week, always early in the morning, and Kishi had finally gotten the whole team to start running a mile every day. She, of course, would always run two, but she never bragged.

After dinner, Kishi and the others dispersed to their rooms. She and Laura were walking up the stairs towards their room when Laura stopped suddenly.

"Damn it. I left my bag in the lunch room. I'll meet you in the room, kay?" She said as she turned to walk back down the stairs.

Kishi giggled and rolled her eyes, but continued up the stairs and the rest of the way to their bedroom. Entering and throwing her bag down onto the floor next to her bed, she flopped down on it, pulling out her books and deciding to actually study, at least while Laura was gone, so she could help Laura on the test the next day.

Several hours later, she looked up from the book that she'd been reading, realizing that Laura hadn't come back yet. Looking at the clock, she frowned and put down the book, getting up and stretching. Walking quickly towards the door, she opened it and looked both left and right down the hall. Laura was no where to be seen. Growling softly, she pulled the door shut behind her as she started to walk down the hall towards the stairs. Looking down over the banister as she reached the top of the stairs, she saw no one. Frowning again and deciding to check in Betsy and Clarice's room, she started to walk away, but the sound of the front door being opened stopped her. Looking down over the railing again, she saw Laura trying to creep into the house without making too much noise.

The dark haired girl had a huge grin on her face and was attempting to not giggle by covering her mouth. She had a black leather biker jacket on, and was holding a helmet in her hand. Kishi crinkled up her nose at this, twisting her face into a look of pure confusion, but suddenly her eyes opened widely. As Laura looked back at the door, someone else slipped in behind her. The taller person was still wearing their helmet, and they shut the door quietly behind themselves. Laura turned towards the other person, still grinning and trying not to giggle. The other person reached up and pulled the helmet off quickly.

Kishi's eyes narrowed as she watched Julian Keller remove his helmet and grin at Laura. The pair moved closer together and Kishi's sensitive ears could hear them whispering below her.

"Thanks for the ride Julian. I had a lot of fun."

"You're welcome, Laura. I did too." he said as he reached out a gloved hand to push Laura's hair back from her face. "You'd probably better get back. I'm sure that she misses you."

Laura's smile dropped a little bit, but she reached her hand up to grab Julian's. Looking up at him, she took yet another step towards him. Her movements were slow and deliberate, and as she got within inches of him, she started to lift herself up onto the tips of her toes. She didn't have to for long though, as Julian suddenly leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. The pair stood like that for a long moment before Julian slowly pulled back from kissing Laura. Laura took a deep breath and smiled up at him, but Julian was looking past her. The look on his face was one of disappointment. Laura spun and gasped as Kishi was standing at the bottom of the stairs, her eyes narrowed at Julian.

Julian glared back at Kishi for a moment, but sighing heavily and looking away, he quickly moved away from Laura, and towards the other set of stairs that led to the boy's dorms. Looking at Laura as he walked up the steps, he said nothing.

"Kishi?" Laura whispered.

Kishi held up her hand, but made no move to say or do anything. Kishi felt sick, sick to her stomach, and was shaking slightly. The lump in her throat made it impossible for her to speak, and she just watched as Laura walked closer to her, hands held out, as though she was trying to pacify Kishi. The taller girl shook her head, and closed her eyes, purposely taking heavy, deep breaths to try and stabilize herself. Opening her eyes, she flinched as she saw Laura had moved very close to her, and was watching her carefully.

Laura stood trembling, looking up slightly into the eyes of the girl that was so similar to her. Her actions had spoken much louder than any words could, and they spoke volumes.

"I... I don't know what to say." she said quietly.

Kishi shook her head, managing to swallow the lump in her throat at the news that her girlfriend had cheated on her... with a boy no less. A boy she had said for years that she hated. The anger welling up inside Kishi was enough to make her burst, but some how, she kept her temper. A soft mental presence soothed the seething wolf in side her brain.

~I'm here... I won't let you fall...~ Betsy's voice was soft and soothing. The angry wolf in Kishi's brain was roaring it's outrage, but Betsy's voice some how calmed the monster.

"You... I..." Kishi shook her head and looked away from Laura. "You don't have to say anything. You've obviously made a decision. One I should have been informed about, but whatever, right? You... you go... be with him, or whatever. It doesn't matter." Only by some miracle was Kishi's temper being controlled. Or maybe it wasn't a miracle...

~Deep breaths... I'm here. Cry later. Don't let her see you cry.~

"Kishi..." Laura started, but Kishi held up a hand to stop her.

"It's not fine. It's not ok. Even if you say you're sorry, it won't matter. Cause I know you're not. It's... It's just whatever." Kishi's voice trembled, but she kept back the tears. "I've... I've got to go." And with that she turned.

"Kishi..." Laura said a final time, but the taller raven haired girl was already walking away.

Kishi just kept walking. She couldn't face the situation, and knew that she was going to cry any second now, but the calmness of the wolf inside of her kept her head clear. Betsy's "voice" was soothing, and somehow, Kishi found herself standing outside the purple haired girl's room. Pausing only for a moment, she raised her hand to knock at the door. Just as she did however, Clarice whipped it open, and stood there for a second, in shock of seeing Kishi at the door.

"Oh! Sorry, didn't know you were out here! You ok?" Clarice tilted her head cutely at the dark haired girl.

Kishi blinked a few times, the tears and the lump in her throat boiling up again.

"She's fine. Go on, you've got to get to the library for that study group." Betsy said, moving quickly towards the door. "Come on in, we'll talk."

Clarice looked very confused, but as she was late for the study group, she chirped a quick good bye, and rushed past Kishi out the door. Kishi stood there, paralyzed, one hand still half raised to knock on the door. Suddenly, she began to tremble violently as her emotions caught up with her. Only Betsy's comforting hand on her shoulder, and steering of her, made her into the room before she collapsed into a heap. Which she promptly did, after being shown to the bed. Huge, body wracking sobs came from the thin girl as she cried desperately into the blanket on Betsy's bed. Betsy simply whispered soft words of comfort and rubbed Kishi's back as the girl laid there and cried.

She'd been betrayed. Betrayed by the one person she thought she could trust wholeheartedly. Laura had taken out her heart and stomped on it. Kishi sobbed for a long while, moaning over and over again, "Why?" Betsy simply let her cry, knowing that the girl was very hurt, but she kept the wolf firmly in check. The wolf was raging in Kishi's mind, but Betsy put up firm barriers to keep the girl's sadness away from it. The wolf could feel the sadness, and as such was responding to attempt to stop it by any means necessary.

After about ten minutes of continuous sobbing, Kishi finally lifted her head from Betsy's bed spread. "I've m-m-m-made a disaster of-of-of-of your b-b-b-ed." she moaned.

Betsy chuckled and reached out to wipe the tears from the girl's cheeks. "It's fine, love. If that's the worst that happens to me this week, I'll be pleasantly surprised."

Kishi managed to smile softly though the tears still fell from her eyes slowly. Suddenly nuzzling her cheek into the soft touch of Betsy's hand, she closed her eyes. "Thank you..." she whispered.

"Of course, love." Betsy answered instantly. "Of course. I hate to see anything bad happen to you, and this... this just makes me miserable." She let the shorter girl rest her cheek in her hand, but moved slowly and put her other hand on the other side of Kishi's face, cradling Kishi's face in her hands. She sighed after a moment of looking the younger girl in the face, and shook her head. "Maybe this is a bad time to bring it up, but I need..." she trailed off suddenly.

Kishi's eyes opened and she looked up into the purple eyes of the girl cradling her face. "I know." She said quietly.

Betsy blinked a few times and tilted her head ever so slightly to look at Kishi. "You know what?"

"That you love me."

Betsy blinked again, pulling her head back in shock. "How... How did you know?"

Kishi smiled up at Betsy, reaching up with her hands to cover the taller girl's. "I don't have to be psychic to know that you're always in my head. Even when I'm asleep I can still feel you." she shook her head slightly with a chuckle. "You don't do that to the rest of the group. I've asked. Clarice and Forge and Bobby all said the same thing. If we're not in training, you're not in their heads. But it doesn't matter the time of day or what I'm doing, I can always feel you." The tears were finally gone from her eyes.

Betsy locked eyes with Kishi again, lifting her hand up to brush the black hair out of the green eyes. "That's because I know how alone you feel. I can feel it from you and I know it eats you inside. You've always had your sister and she's gone now. Even with Laura, I could feel you still felt alone. Especially over the last two weeks. You know how much time she's been spending away from you, and I know how bad that's been killing you. You knew this was coming, but you did nothing to protect yourself. Why?"

Kishi closed her eyes, letting two final tears slip from her eyes before opening them again. "I couldn't. I... I just wanted to keep her as long as possible I guess."

Betsy finally pulled her hands from Kishi's face, starting to drop them back into her lap, but Kishi reached out and took them in her smaller hands. Smiling softly at the sight of them holding hands, Betsy finally looked back up at the dark haired girl.

"I can understand that. I personally want to hang on to you as long as I can." she paused and tilted her head again, looking at Kishi with a severe blush on her cheeks. "That is, if you'll have me..." she finished quietly.

Kishi grinned up at the taller girl, the tears and sadness gone from her eyes completely. "Of course." she said quietly.

Betsy smiled back, her eyes sparkling with joy as she slowly leaned towards the shorter girl. It was Kishi's turn to blush as the purple haired girl reached up and put her hand on the back of her neck, gently pulling her into a soft kiss. As their lips touched, Kishi realized that not only was the wolf in her head placated, but she finally felt as though she had someone that would never leave her alone.

ONE WEEK LATER

"So, how exactly is this going to work?" Wolverine growled as the team filed into the control room for the danger room. He looked pointedly from Kishi to Laura. "You two gonna be able to get along? You've got a big match today."

Kishi shook her head and glared at Wolverine. "Trust me. Nothing's going to come in the way of us winning this match. The Hellions are going down." she growled.

Laura simply stood quietly at the back of the group, choosing not to say anything to her adopted father. Wolverine snorted in irritation, and then shook his head.

"Fine. Any screw ups and the entire team runs two miles, except for Feral. You get five."

Kishi narrowed her eyes at him, but made no objections. The entire team moved to the elevator as Wolverine pointed to it, filing in one at a time, Laura the last to get in. She started to hesitate, but Kishi's low growl caused her to flinch and move into the elevator.

As it was dropping towards the bottom of the danger room, Kishi sighed heavily and laid out the plan.

"Alright. Here's the deal. We've got Hellion, who's a powerful telekinetic, Rockslide who's just huge, Mercury, who can be anything, Icarus, who can fly, Wither, who can't hurt me, Forge or Talon, and Tag, who depending on how he feels, mess up the whole plan. Most important part: stay away from Tag. Everyone. Psylocke, you take out Hellion, quick, cause he can mess most of us up pretty quickly, and I can't get through his shielding. Blink, take out Mercury. I don't care where she goes, just away. Forge, you get Icarus out of the sky. Iceman, you see if you can't take Tag down. Talon, take Wither down, and I'll take care of Rockslide. Every body prepped?"

Everyone nodded, except for Laura, who didn't say anything. Narrowing her eyes, Kishi glared at the similar looking girl.

"Are we green, Talon?" she snapped.

Laura finally lifted her head and looked at Kishi. "Ye-yeah. Take down Wither. Got it."

Kishi sighed and looked at Betsy. "Do your thing girl." she said quietly.

Psylocke nodded, and closed her eyes as the purple butterfly shapes appeared next to them. In a moment the group cleared their thoughts and just as the elevator landed, Kishi sent a very quiet thought to Laura.

~Are you in this?~

~Of course.~ Laura answered simply.

Kishi knew she was reverting. ~Just get through this, and we can prove we can get through anything. Leave your emotions here on the elevator. Please.~ Kishi begged.

~Of course.~ Laura responded again.

Turning away from Laura as the elevator doors opened, Kishi managed to hide her irritation from the dark haired girl and the rest of the group. Stepping out, she started her shift. Once she was fully prepared, the group moved out into the danger room.

It had been transformed into a desert, completely devoid of any trees, rocks or cover. Feral snarled upon seeing this, but they had to deal with what they were given. It would give Rockslide an advantage, and would also hinder Iceman. It seemed like either Wolverine had chosen an environment that would hinder Evolution more than it would the Hellions to make it almost impossible for them to win, or the Hellions and Emma Frost had something to do with it. Either way, it didn't matter. They were stuck with it, and as such, Feral had to hope that her team would all perform as required.

The team fanned out as the got off the elevator. Everyone looked prepped and green, and Feral had a sudden surge of hope. Her team would perform up to par, and that was the end of it. She was not going to loose this match. After all, it was the final match for all the marbles. If they won, they would be the new alternate X-men team, and would get to help the X-men. That thought focused in her mind, she motioned the team forward, heading deeper into the sand.

The sun was hot and within minutes she was panting heavily. The team was moving slowly into the sand, everyone on high alert for the slightest movement. Finally lifting her nose to the sky to sniff heavily, Feral was suddenly thrown backwards as Rockslide came up from under her.

~Everyone move!~ she roared mentally even as she landed heavily on her back.

"Awww! Did I hurt the poor little wulfie?" Rockslide mocked as he crawled up out of the sand to stand on top of it. "Too fricken bad. Get up!"

Feral lay on the ground for a moment before putting her hands next to her head, palms down, and flipping herself upwards. The second her feet touched the ground, Rockslide was lunging for her, but she was faster. Pushing downwards with her powerful back legs, she leapt 30 feet into the air. Rockslide didn't hesitate, and started firing chunks of rock from his forearms at the now air borne wolf. Feral snarled as one hit her, but didn't deviate from her course. Rockslide was once again too slow, and she landed heavily on his face. But he was stronger than her, and managed to keep his feet under him as over 1000 pounds of wolf landed on him. She snarled as he grinned and reached up to grab her feet. As he attempted to pull her down off of him, she reached down with her hands and grabbed the back of his head. Pushing with her feet as hard as she could and pulling upwards with her hands, she managed to push him down onto his face. As the sand flew upwards in a cloud as she downed the giant rock man, she leapt backwards, landing about 10 feet from him. Taking the moment to look around, she had mixed reactions to how the match was going.

Blink was attempting to throw javelins at Tag as the tall skinny African American kid attempted to dodge them by zigzagging back and forth. Talon was dropped to one knee as Wither held her wrists, she was holding back. Psylocke had managed to take down Hellion and was running across the sand towards Talon in an attempt to help her. Icarus looked as though he had a broken wing and was attempting to block punches from Forge, but was failing miserably. Iceman had collapsed in the sand, and was pouring sweat, but Mercury was no where to be seen. Feral had her attention ripped away though, as two hard objects hit her in the stomach.

Yelping in pain, Feral turned her attention back to Rockslide. The huge rock man had managed to pull his face out of the sand and was growling as he glared at her.

"You're going down, lesbo. We ain't gonna loose this match."

Feral thought about having Psylocke open a channel to the half beaten team, but decided against the waste of energy it would take. Growling angrily, she crouched down onto all fours, then raced forward towards Rockslide. Rockslide stayed still as the giant werewolf raced towards him and then at the last second attempted to move out of the way. But Feral had known that he was going to, and it was exactly what she had wanted. As her hands hit the sand in her last bound, she dug her claws into the soft sand, grabbing two handfuls of it. As Rockslide danced to the left in an effort to get out of the way of the charging wolf, she flicked her tail down and to the right, using it as a rudder to turn herself almost on a dime. Lifting her hands with their handfuls of sand, she threw the blinding stuff into Rockslide's mouth and eyes. Landing heavily on her right wrist as she attempted to complete the landing, she yelped again and had to roll to absorb the rest of the fall. Her huge bulk slammed her into the ground on her right side, almost knocking the wind out of her. Rolling quickly to her feet however, she spun quickly to view her handy work. Rockslide was groaning and dropping to his knees as the sand imbedded itself into his sensitive eyes. Attempting to rub the stuff out only got it ground in deeper, and he was quickly roaring in irritation. Feral knew that this time he wouldn't be getting back up for a while and took the spare moments to look around.

Talon and Psylocke had managed to incapacitate Wither, and Tag was also missing. Forge had stopped pounding on the unconscious Icarus, and Blink had made it to Iceman's side. Putting her badly broken wrist to her chest, she took a deep breath, then called for a status report.

~All alive, all unharmed.~ Psylocke's report came back within a second. ~Iceman's simply passed out from heat, Tag didn't even have to touch him. Blink got rid of Mercury _and _Tag, I managed to take down Hellion, and with the distraction caused by Talon, Wither as well. Looks like all we've got left is the big guy.~

Feral roared in response to the positive report. ~No. He's down. Got something in his eye.~ She chuckled mentally.

Suddenly the sand and heat was gone. The danger room returned to its blank state, and the two elevators on either side of the room were opening. Wolverine, with Elixir at his side, came striding towards the teens from the left, and Emma Frost with Professor McCoy at her side, came from the right. Elixir ran quickly towards Icarus, who even with his healing factor hadn't managed to become conscious again. Wolverine snapped his fingers at Feral, who promptly shifted back and stood there, still cradling her wrist. Blink had managed to drag Iceman to his feet and the pair were being helped towards Feral by Forge. Psylocke had already managed to drag Talon to stand by Feral's side, where they were promptly joined by Blink, Iceman and Forge. The team stood there, half bloodied or bruised, the other half unharmed, but all of them managed to have grins on their faces.

"Well." Wolverine said as he approached. "Didn't think you'd manage to pull it off in those kinds of conditions. They heavily favored the Hellions."

Kishi nodded, still smirking at her teacher.

Frost was not so pleased as she approached. "You've nearly killed half the team. This was to be a training exercise." She snapped.

Kishi turned towards her and glared at the taller woman. "Excuse me, but who did we nearly kill? Icarus is the only one who's seriously injured, and he's also the only one who's got a healing factor. Hellion and Wither are simply unconscious, Rockslide's got some dirt in his eyes, and Mercury and Tag are..." she paused and looked at Clarice. "Where are they?"

Emma frowned at the blatant disrespect that Kishi was showing her. "They're just outside of the mansion. I kept a firm hold on them as Blink teleported them. You're lucky though. You realize she could have teleported them as far as the moon, right?" she snapped.

Kishi had looked at Emma as the Headmistress had started talking, but now looked back at Clarice. "Serious? That far?"

Clarice blushed furiously, but nodded. "Yeah. And it's sucky cause I don't know where they go. I just throw the javelins." she shrugged.

Kishi half laughed, but shook her head and turned back to the Headmistress. "Your team is fine. What's the big deal?"

Emma glared at the short, dark haired girl. "Nothing." after a long moment and just as she turned to walk towards where her team had gathered, she added, "Good job."

Kishi turned back to Wolverine, who was actually half smiling. "Alright. You lot get out of here. Drake! You need healing?"

Iceman gave a thumbs up to his teacher, but still leaned heavily on Forge. "No. I'm fine." he mumbled.

The rest of the team gave a collective chuckle and started towards the elevator. Kishi lead the way, adjusting her wrist and flinching as the bones knitted themselves and snapped back into place. But after only a moment of pain, she was able to rotate her wrist from left to right and then in a circle, proving that it was fine. The mental connection had dropped, but as usual Kishi could still feel Betsy in her head. Smiling with soft pleasure at the gentle touch, she hid her smile as she turned to stand in the elevator. The rest of the team filed in, but Kishi frowned looking out into the danger room. Laura was standing there, staring in the direction of Julian. Kishi's heart started to drop in her chest, but suddenly she felt like she was being wrapped in a fierce hug. Betsy's hand was simply resting on her shoulder, but the feeling that the psychic was giving off was enough to make her close her eyes in pleasure.

"LAURA! C'MON!" Clarice yelled, saving Kishi from having to do it.

Laura looked back at her friends, then looked back at Julian. He was being helped to his feet by Elixir, and he had a look of pure, unadulterated anger on his face. Shaking his head, he looked at the Headmistress, then looked back at Laura. Crooking a finger, he beckoned her towards him. Kishi started to step out of the elevator, but Betsy's hand on her shoulder stopped her.

~She has to make her own decision. You cannot influence this. You are not Keller.~

Kishi sighed and took a step backwards. Laura turned her head back to face her friends, but didn't turn the rest of her body. Kishi closed her eyes just as Laura's eyes found hers, and lowered her head. Taking deep steadying breaths, and clinging to the warm feeling of Betsy in her mind, she finally opened her eyes back up. Laura was standing in the elevator, shaking slightly. Kishi smiled softly at her, and as the elevator door shut, Betsy removed her hand from Kishi's shoulder.


	4. Chapter 4

THREE MONTHS LATER

Kishi was awoken out of a dead sleep as the door to her room was pushed open quietly. Opening her eyes and frowning, and realizing that she was facing the wall and not the door, she spun quickly in bed, throwing the blanket off of her and turning to face whoever was coming in the room. Starting her shift made the bed creak under her.

"Whoa, kid! It's just me!" Wolverine's voice came from the dark.

Kishi snarled angrily as the light was flipped on and her half transformed eyes were assaulted by the bright light. She was half way through her transformation, coated in black fur and about twice her size. The bed was bowed heavily under her weight and Betsy had slid to where she was laying, half curled around her girlfriend's now oversized hips. At the sight of Wolverine, however, Kishi quickly stopped transforming and quickly shifted back to her human form. Betsy sighed heavily and wrapped the blanket around herself to cover her nakedness. Kishi however had no qualms about her modesty after getting woken up in the middle of the night.

Glaring at Wolverine, she stayed sitting on the bed, but crossed her arms over her chest. "What's the big idea, boss?"

Wolverine stared at the naked girl for a moment before clearing his throat and looking away from her. "We've got a mission for your team, Feral."

Kishi narrowed her eyes further at the Wolverine but nodded. "Ok, so I'll gather the team in the War room."

Wolverine nodded and turned to leave the room. Kishi took a deep breath and turned towards Betsy. As the door shut behind Wolverine, Betsy sighed and stretched languorously. Letting the blanket slide down as she stretched, she grinned up at Kishi as the shorter girl watched the beautiful body of her girlfriend on the bed.

A half hour later, Evolution was in the War room, suited up and standing at attention as Wolverine pulled up the holographic image of a town, complete with a detailed map of the city. As the map of the city slowly revolved above the kid's heads, he growled and sat down heavily in a chair.

"So here's the deal. We have three mutants terrorizing this city, and the local police have been unable to stop them. The X-men are busy dealing with a plan of Magneto's. So we're looking to you kids to handle this. We only have details on two of the mutants in the situation, a mutant by the name of Sabertooth, and a mutant by the name of Toad. Toad isn't that dangerous, but Sabertooth is a very dangerous mutant. He has extreme strength and speed, razor sharp claws on both hands and feet, and a nasty bite. Like I said, we have no details on the third mutant, but we know he has something to do with kinetic energy. The police have said that he uses cards to focus his energy." Wolverine paused and looked at Kishi for a moment. "Any questions?"

Kishi sighed. This being the leader crap was getting old. "Yeah. This Sabertooth or Toad have any weaknesses?"

"Toad hates the cold, he's cold blooded, so it slows him down a lot. Sabertooth... Not so much. He a great hulking beast with hardly any sense except to kill. He won't hesitate to kill you, so be careful. Try and bring them back... Alive..." he growled the last.

Kishi nodded and turned to the rest of the group. "Alright kids, we've got our orders, let's get to it." And with a motion of her hand above her head, the team turned and headed towards the hangar.

An hour later the Blackbird was hovering over a city street in a little town called Jeffersonville, New York. The city was deserted, apparently the cops had evacuated the city after the three mutants had torn down a bank in downtown. That meant that there should be very few remaining citizens. That put Kishi's mind at ease a little bit. She stood, already transformed on the loading platform of the Blackbird, the wind blowing heavily through her fur as it was kicked up by the jets of the plane. Turning to her team, she waived them forward with her hand, even as she leapt down from the loading platform.

Once they were safely on the ground, Kishi sniffed the air heavily, trying to pinpoint a mutant's scent. After finding only trace amounts of any misplaced scents, she snorted and shook her head. Turning towards her team, she growled softly.

~Alright, here's the deal. We split into teams of two. Talon, you're with me, Psylocke and Iceman, and Forge with Blink. Psy and Iceman, you two find Toad and take him out. Blink and Forge, you two find the unknown and see if you can incapacitate him. Me and Talon will take down Sabertooth.~ Growling as a quiet noise from behind her made her turn, she narrowed her eyes and tried to see what had made the noise. ~Everybody stay frosty. They've got the advantage right now. They know we're here. I want check ins every 5 minutes, and if you get a whiff of them, send a signal. If no one finds anything, we all meet back here in 1 hour. Good hunting.~

Talon and Feral moved down the street to the west as Forge took Blink to the roof tops to move north, and Psylocke and Iceman moved quickly the opposite way, going to the east down the same street. The two hunters crisscrossed each others paths as they moved down the street, both of them sniffing heavily to try to catch the scent of their prey. Feral pressed her back to the wall to look to her right down the next street. Across from her, Talon had to drop to her knees to crawl along the sidewalk due to the glass wall of the corner store. Sliding on her belly she moved to where she could look down the left side of the street, then nodded to Feral. Feral nodded in return, then raced across the street to move in front of Talon, moving to the south down the street. This street was open on the west side of the street, so the pair stayed close to the buildings on the east side of the street. Feral led the way, her nose still sniffing heavily.

~FERAL!~

The great beast spun and looked as Talon's scream came mentally. Roaring in her rage, she chased the person dragging Talon into one of the businesses. Sliding on the broken glass in the front of the shop, she landed heavily on her side. Looking up as she started to get up, a purplish glow made her hesitate. A man with shaggy, brown hair and glowing, red eyes was holding Talon by her collar. A card in his hand was giving off the glow, and he glared at the giant wolf as she attempted to get up.

"Now, listen her' beast." The man drawled, his accent very strange to Kishi's ears. "I can mak' jus abou annathin blow up. Includin' your girl's clothes her'. So I know's you can shift back into some other form, so why don' you go on and do it, ya?"

~I don't think he's bluffing.~ Talon said mentally, her claws sliding back into her knuckles. ~But you can take him. It's nothing. You know I'll recover, and so will you. He doesn't. Take him.~ Out loud, she yelled, "Don't do it! Take him!"

The man narrowed his eyes further, and suddenly, Talon's entire outfit was bathed in the purple glow. Feral froze in her attempt to get up, and simply stared at the man. He smirked at her and nodded.

"Ah... you's tinkin I be bluffin'. Well beast, let ol' Gambit get you straigh'. I'm a card man, and I don' bluff. So change back." he growled the last, still glaring at the wolf.

~Laura, I'm going to shift back. It'll be fine.~ Then to the others, she added. ~If anybody's not busy...~

~Feral! We've run into the toad!~ Blink cried suddenly. ~I'm attempting to take him out now!~

~And, uh... we just found the big guy. He's pretty damn scary. This is gonna keep us busy for a while...~ Iceman said a split second after Blink's response.

Feral growled out loud and mentally. ~Hold on guys. We're handling the third one, we'll be to help as soon as possible.~

Staying on her side, Feral slowly started to shift back. As her black fur finally slipped away, the man's eyes opened wide and then he chuckled softly.

"Well well. So, you's a girl. Alrigh' den." He paused and shook his head. "Well, chere, wha's your name?"

Kishi lifted her hands as she slowly stood up, trying not to throw the man into a panic or a rage, though he seemed incapable of both with the grin on his face. "Feral." she said quietly.

"You's are a pretty ting', ain' ya chere? Wha you be doin' wit' a strange name like dat', huh? Wha's your real name, chere?" He smirked at her, a strange glint in his eyes.

"Kishi." she answered simply.

The man smirked at her for a moment longer, and ran his eyes up and down her body, as though he was looking at a thick juicy steak. "And, you's a kid..." he said quietly, finally taking his eyes from her and looking at Talon in his grasp. "And so's she. Th' Boss done said we was gonna be facing da X-men, not some kids. So, either you's is her' cause da X-men is busy, or you's her' cause dey sent you's her'." he looked back at Kishi for an answer.

"We were assigned to this mission. To stop you from terrorizing this town." Kishi growled in response.

The man laughed, a huge grin on his face. "So... the X-men don' sent some kids as to stop us. Hmmm. And terrorizing, you say? We ain' doin' nothin wha' dis town don' deserve. You know why we's her' chere? You know why we's "terrorizing" dis lil town?"

Kishi looked at him, tilting her head, and narrowing her eyes. "Cause you're evil mutants?"

"Aww, chere, how you be tinkin' a tin like dat?" he shook his head, the grin quickly disappearing from his face. "We ain' evil. If we was, you tink we be sittin' her' havin a conversation? Like I says, we be doin' to dis town wha' it don deserve. You know annathin' about Jeffersonville, New York, chere? You know annathin' about wha' they don did her'?" he narrowed his eyes at her.

Kishi shook her head. "No." she said aloud. ~Everyone! Status reports!~ she snapped mentally.

~Blink and Forge checking in. Blink successfully teleported the toad away. We are moving towards Psylocke's and Iceman's location to assist. Hold on Feral, we're moving as quickly as we can.~ Forge's response came first.

Psylocke was a split second after him. ~Iceman is down, I'm doing my best to hold of this guy, but it's hard. He's huge and-~ She was cut off and Kishi could feel the pain emanating from her. ~He's got mean claws...~ She finished. ~ Hurry up Forge!~

Meanwhile, Gambit had noticed the glazed over look that Kishi had had. "Ah... You kids ain' dumb. Ya'll don brough a telepath. Good tinkin', chere." he grinned at her. "But, I digress. We tree mutants are her' in Jeffersonville, New York caus they was a killin' up her' not but tree days ago. A killin' of a mutant. Lil boy, bout 10 years old. They don' killed him cause he "exhibited strange powers". And you know how they don' killed him? His own fader tied him ta' th' back of a truck and don' drug him through da' town. Lil boy was ripped ta' pieces. How dat make you feel, chere?"

Kishi had started to growl as he started talking, but after the man started his explanation of why the three mutants were in the city, she stopped suddenly. "Serious? They killed a child?" she whispered as he finished.

He nodded. "And wher' was your precious X-men den? Huh, cheri? Were dey der' to protect dat boy? Non. They wer' hidin in deir mansion, hidin from the cruelty of dem." he frowned deeply and took a deep breath.

Kishi shook her head. "I can't condone the actions of the humans, but-"

"Thank you." he said, cutting her off.

Kishi tossed her head from side to side suddenly, then blinked her eyes in confusion as she looked back up at the much taller man. "F-for what?"

"Callin' dem humans." he said quietly. "We ain' human, an' don' mos' of us wanna be. We be mutants, and we be better dan dem, cherie. Don' ever forget dat'."

Kishi closed her eyes for a moment, partially to hide the glazed over look they were about to have, and partially to hide the fact that she was actually upset at the news that he had given her. The Wolverine hadn't mentioned this in his briefing, and she was actually very pissed that he hadn't.

~Psy?~ she called mentally.

~Almost there, Feral. Hold on. Keep him talking. He obviously likes to hear himself talk.~ Psylocke's response came back instantly.

Kishi opened her eyes back up to see the man simply staring at her. His strange eyes seemed to be trying to tell her something, but she couldn't fathom it. Talon was still glaring at her, and her voice came mentally after Psylocke's.

~Just take him!~

Kishi narrowed her eyes at the man, debating, but they needed him alive, and they needed someone. From the feeling she got from Psylocke, Sabertooth had escaped. She could feel the feeling of Psy getting very close, and knew that she only had to keep him talking for a few more moments.

"What's your name?" she said after a long moment.

He smiled sincerely at her, and winked. "Name's Remy, Remy Lebeau. Or you can call me Gambit. Pleasure to meet you, ma cherie."

"What do you keep calling me?" she asked in confusion.

"Cherie? Or chere?" he asked in return. At her nod he grinned from ear to ear. "It means love, my love. It be french. It be a sign of affection."

She nodded, but couldn't help but ask the next question. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

His grin only seemed to get bigger. "Caus'. Like I said, you's a pretty ting. Ol' Gambit been aroun' so many ugly or viscous monsters lately, dat he be glad to be seein' sometin' prettier."

Kishi simply rolled her eyes. "Ok, so you're here cause you're paying this town back for what they did?"

He nodded. "Yup. An' we ain' leavin' 'till dis town know wha' hit 'em." He smirked.

And just as suddenly as Kishi felt that Psylocke was sliding around the corner, he cried out in pain and hit his knees, his hands on his temples. But as his hand let go of Talon's collar, her outfit exploded, sending her flying into Kishi, who flew backwards through the busted out window. Both girls landed heavily on their backs in the middle of the street, just as Psylocke and the others came skittering around the corner. Laura was missing most of her skin, and had severe burns all over her body. Kishi had some glass shards in her back, but was otherwise unharmed. Psy raced to Kishi's side, quickly looking her over and pulling out the biggest of the shards of glass. Kishi hissed in pain, but quickly shrugged off her girlfriend.

"I'm fine." she growled, moving quickly to Laura.

Laura's breathing was shallow, but steady. Kishi lifted Laura's head into her lap as she crouched down next to her ex.

"Someone contact Wolverine. Let's get the hell outta here." She said, just before shifting back to her wolf form and lifting Laura in one of her arms, then heading back into the shop to grab Gambit by his collar and drag him out on to the street.

Forge met Feral as she drug Gambit out of the shop. "I'll take him. Wolverine's putting the Blackbird down in just a moment." He said through the speakers on his helmet as he bent down to lift the man into his arms.

Five minutes later, the entire group was filing up the ramp to get onto the Blackbird. Laura had started to recover, but hadn't quite woken up yet. Feral set her down on a table in the back of the jet, and strapped her to it so that she wouldn't move on the short flight back to the mansion. She shifted back as she finished tightening the straps, then turned to the rest of the team. They had strapped themselves in, but had turned the chairs to face their leader. Gambit had been put in restraints at the back of the plane. Wolverine was pushing on the thrusters of the Blackbird and setting the autopilot as she walked through the plane to sit in her own chair. Turning it around, to face her team, she looked at Wolverine.

"Alright." he growled. "So what happened?"

Kishi sighed heavily and shook her head. "They knew we were there. They had the upper hand, and had seemed to be expecting trouble." Looking at Betsy, she realized that the girl had several long gashes across her stomach, and was pale and trembling from blood loss. Betsy shook her head however, and placed her arm across her stomach, motioning for Kishi to continue. Kishi closed her eyes and frowned, but took a deep breath and continued. "We split into three teams, attempted to canvass the city by blocks, and locate the mutants. Blink and Forge checked in first, they had found Toad, Blink managed to teleport him away. Psy and Iceman found Sabertooth, which was not what we had planned, but there it was anyway. I guess after Blink and Forge joined the fight against him, he split, being outnumbered. Talon and I found the third mutant, a man calling himself Gambit. He seemed to be less interested in fighting, and more interested in talking. So, due to his ability, we let him talk."

"Yet Laura still got blown up?"

Kishi nodded. "It seemed that when Psylocke used her powers to put him down, he lost control of his power. He had charged her clothes with his ability and when he lost control of them, they just kind of exploded. Luckily he apparently can't do too much damage to something that large. She's pretty tore up, but she's recovering quickly."

Wolverine growled again, but nodded and turned back to the controls of the plane. Kishi looked again at Betsy, who was applying pressure to her stomach. The purple haired girl looked as though she would pass out any second now. Growling in frustration, Kishi got up out of her seat and moved across the plane to her girlfriend. Crouching down next to Betsy, she looked up at the taller girl with concern.

"You alright, baby?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. Just hurts a little." Betsy mumbled.

"We need a healer. C'mon. Get up, I'll bandage you up." Standing, Kishi drug Betsy up, throwing her girlfriend's arm over her shoulder and pulling the taller girl towards the back of the plane.

Moving quickly to the bed on the other side of the plane, Kishi laid Betsy down on the cot, and quickly moved to the first aid kit. Grabbing bandages and some of the antiseptic, she moved back over to Betsy and knelt down next to her. Making short work of bandaging the shallow gashes on Betsy's stomach, Kishi went back to the cabinet for some of the pain medication that was in there. Returning to Betsy, she had lifted herself up on her elbows and was watching the man across the plane. The purple butterfly shapes were around her temples, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"What is it?" Kishi asked as she knelt back down, next to the psychic.

Betsy blinked furiously for a moment then looked back at Kishi. "He's... he's fighting it. He's strong, but I'm faster." she turned and looked at Kishi, smiling at her girlfriend. "Let me see your back."

Kishi shrugged, but turned around. Betsy ran her hand across the cuts in the girl's suit, noting that the skin was completely healed, except for a few deep ones that still had red marks from where they were. Kishi looked back over her shoulder and then spun back around quickly as Betsy collapsed back onto the cot, her skin very pale. Betsy's body trembled, and Kishi grabbed the blanket from the end of the cot and pulled it over the tall girl. Leaning down, she gently kissed Betsy on the forehead.

"It'll be fine, Betsy. Just hang on. We're almost home."

Thirty minutes later, the plane was safely in the hangar and the team helped Betsy and carried Gambit down the ramp, followed closely by Wolverine. They were met by Scott Summers, who directed Forge to carry the prisoner to the holding cells, and directed Kishi and Laura to help Betsy to the med bay. After the two girls brought Betsy to the med bay, Kishi promised that she would be back, then went to the holding cells to meet with Wolverine.

"He awake yet?" she asked quietly as she approached.

"What you tink chere?" Gambit's voice came from the holding cell.

She sighed. "Alright. You want to tell him what you told me?" she pointed her thumb at her teacher.

Gambit shrugged and gave the girl a noncommittal head shake. "Nah. Figure you gon be tellin him soon enough. 'Sides, I gotta hell of a headache now."

She glared at him. "Fine." Turning to Wolverine, she sighed heavily. "So. What do we do with him now?"

Wolverine growled. "I'm not sure. He could possibly have information on what the Brotherhood is doing, but I'm sure he'll only trade it for his freedom." Wolverine growled as the man in the cell nodded in response to this. "What did he tell you?"

Kishi growled angrily and glared at Wolverine. "He told me that they were attacking the city because someone in the town had killed a little boy. You failed to mention that. Why?"

Wolverine growled low in his throat, narrowing his eyes at her. "Cause it had nothing to do with the mission. The point of the mission was to get them to stop terrorizing the town. You succeeded. Why they were terrorizing the town makes no difference." He shook his head and pointed at Gambit. "He had to be stopped. End of story, and discussion." The tone of his voice assured Kishi that he was done discussing the subject.

Kishi started to snarl at him, but Gambit clearing her throat made her stop. Spinning around quickly, she growled. "What?"

"Um, chere? He's kinda right. We was gonna terrorize some place, just so happened we heard about that place. Kinda got our blood boiling, if ya know what I mean." He smirked at the short girl.

"I don't really give a-"

"Feral! I need you and Wolverine to meet me in the War room. And bring Talon." Scott's voice echoing down the hall cut off Kishi's snotty retort to the Cajun.

Kishi spun and looked, and sure enough, Scott Summers was standing at the end of the hall, dressed in his X-men uniform. He looked serious. Looking back at Wolverine, she gave her teacher a confused look as Scott started to turn away. Wolverine just shrugged and proceeded to walk towards the War Room. Kishi sighed as she heard the clearing of a throat behind her.

"I'll see you soon, chere." Gambit said, pressing himself as close to the barrier as possible, so he could watch her walk away.

She sighed and shook her head, scampering after Wolverine, putting her hand on his wrist.

"So, I guess I should go get Laura?" she asked.

At his nod, she did just that, breaking away from the path that her teacher was taking and moving back towards the med bay where she had left Laura and Betsy. Jogging into the med bay, she found that Elixir had fixed up Betsy, and she was pulling a clean and non ripped scrub shirt over her head. Laura was watching her, but turned to face Kishi as she entered the room.

"Laura, I need you to come with me. Scott wants us in the War Room for something." she said quickly.

Laura looked as shocked as Kishi had, but nodded and moved towards the door and Kishi. Betsy however finished pulling on the shirt and frowned at her girlfriend.

"What about the rest of the team?" she asked quietly.

Kishi shrugged. "I don't know. He didn't mention anyone else. I'll keep you posted about what's happening though. Promise." she said softly back, walking over to touch Betsy's face.

Betsy smiled at the shorter girl, reaching out to return the soft gesture. "Ok. I'll be waiting in the room for you."

Kishi smiled and nodded, then turned and followed Laura out of the room. The two similar looking girls walked at a brisk pace towards the War Room. Laura sighed after a moment though.

"We're probably going to get an ass chewing for some reason or another. Something that we didn't do correctly or something like that." she growled.

Kishi nodded. "Yeah, maybe, but why you? You aren't the leader, I'm supposed to take all the heat."

Laura shrugged. "No idea."

As the pair walked into the room, they noticed they were not the only three called to the room. There were five other mutants in the room, none of which the two girls had ever met. There were four men and a woman, all of which were dressed in dark uniforms and had very serious looks on their faces. Scott seemed to look very serious as well, and as Wolverine turned to them, he had a similar look. The two girls stopped in their tracks, Kishi taking a long moment to glare at Wolverine before looking back at Scott.

"Ok, so we're here?" she said, confused.

Scott pointed to a pair of empty chairs and motioned for the two girls to sit. As they did, he took a deep breath and then began speaking.

"Alright. Feral, Talon, you two are the only two who haven't been briefed, so I'll make this short and to the point. You two have shown exceptional attitudes in the training rooms and in the field. Your commitment to your mission is perfect, and you two hardly make mistakes. The reason why you are here is because I am putting together a new team, and I need people of a certain... caliber. I believe you two are it. This team is going to be a lot different from the one you are on now, and a lot... more effective." Taking another deep breath, he paused for a second, then continued. "There are missions that the X-men can't, or won't take on. There are factions out there, that in this war, are making it very hard for us to... match them. They are ruthless. They kill humans and mutants alike and will not back down from anything. These factions are the reason that the X-men hide their identities. These factions do not care who they harm, and as such, are requiring a more... forceful hand."

Kishi and Laura both looked confused at Scott's long speech. However, Laura was the first to speak.

"I suppose by more forceful hand, you mean... killing, right?" She asked quietly.

Kishi looked at Laura with a plainly shocked look on her face. Looking back at Scott for confirmation, she was stunned by the fact that he nodded. Scott looked at her and held up a hand.

"Before you get the bright idea to tell Betsy, please, don't. She's not to be a part of this, we've already established that she doesn't have the right specifications to do this kind of a job. Keep her out of this conversation and out of your head." he said harshly.

Kishi gaped at him, but nodded slowly. "Alright..." she murmured. "So if we're to be killers, who would our targets be?" she said, finally regaining some of her composure.

Scott pushed a button on the console in front of him and a screen popped up in the middle of the room. "Factions like The Purifiers, and Weapon X. These two are causing us the most trouble due to the fact that they will kill mutants on sight. There is also an unknown entity that is killing mutants one at a time on a path across the country. We have no further intel, other than it seems to be targeting young mutants with powerful abilities. These are the kinds of people that the X-men cannot stop. They are too violent for us to handle, and as such, I need a team that can give them back what they are dishing out, and stop them... for good."

Kishi stared at the screen for a long moment before turning to look at Wolverine. "So, Professor, are you in?"

Wolverine shook his head. "I'm not your teacher anymore kid." he growled.

"Well that answers that question." Kishi sighed. "Who are these guys?"

Scott sighed again and ran his eyes over each one before answering. "This is the rest of the team. You have Warpath," he pointed to a very large man who looked to be native american. "Vanisher," he pointed to the next man who was covered in tattoos and seemed to be very nervous. "Caliban," Scott's finger moved towards a mutant who was grey in coloration and had a strange bone structure that made him look like a demon. "Domino," he pointed to the only other girl in the room. She had short black hair, blue green eyes and a black patch around her left eye, which to Kishi's brain, made her look a little like a dog. "and Archangel." he finished, pointing to the last man in the room, who was tall, handsome and had shaggy dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. "They, along with Wolverine, so far, make up the team. I'm calling it X-Force." He paused and looked between the two girls. "This is a one time opportunity to do what needs to be done. If you don't take the position, we'll understand, but you've got to understand that we'll have to wipe your memories of this conversation, due to the secretive nature of this group. No one is going to know about X-Force. No one is going to know the kinds of things they do, because no one needs to."

Laura had nodded at the last comment, then piped up with: "I'm in."

Kishi was staring at the floor, trying to wrestle with the thoughts of what she would have to do with this group. Her mind was torn. She knew that she'd be able to help mutants like she wanted to if she was able to help defeat the Purifiers and others like them, but to take another life? She didn't know if she could do that. She knew though, that she had to make up her mind. Laura was in. So was she.

"Alright." she said quietly.

Scott nodded. "Alright then. You'll be given 6 hours to explain that you are being reassigned to the X-Factor team in San Francisco, and you're going to be permanently reassigned to that team. We've already covered for you with the teachers, but we know that you two have friends and will have to explain somethings to them. Feral, we know about your... handicap, and as such, are willing to allow Betsy to go on two missions with you, to help you adjust to working without a psychic. She'll be unaware of the whole situation, and you are not authorized to tell her that you've been authorized to kill. The only thing she's there for is to give you the ability to speak to your new team. After those two missions she will be brought back here and you will have to learn how to communicate with your team without her. Understood?" At Kishi's nod, he continued. "Wolverine is the leader of this little outfit, so nothing's changed for you two there." After a final pause and glance between the girls, he smiled slightly. "Dismissed."

Kishi and Laura stood, Kishi still looking at the ground. Laura nudged her slightly as they walked towards the door. Kishi finally looked up as they walked through the door to the War Room.

"You alright?" Laura asked quietly.

Kishi hesitated, but nodded after a moment. "Yeah. Fine. Just... deep, you know?"

Laura nodded. "Yeah, but, it's what we're good at. This way, neither of us have to hold back. We can just do what needs to be done and not have to worry about getting our butts chewed for it." Kishi thought she sounded entirely too excited about this prospect.

A few minutes later, Kishi made it into her room, shutting the door quietly behind herself. Betsy turned from the desk, looking at Kishi with a plainly confused look on her face.

"So, why didn't you tell me what was going on in the meeting?" Betsy asked, trying very hard to keep the accusation out of her voice.

Kishi sighed, leaning against the door for a moment before closing her eyes and looking at the floor. "Sorry, was really wrapped up in what they were wanting. I'm going to be transferring teams." she said quietly.

Betsy narrowed her eyes and frowned at her girlfriend. "What? Why?"

"X-Factor apparently needs me and Laura." she said as she shrugged. "Scott just said that we have to transfer there. Bad news is its permanent, good news is you get to join me on two missions." she said quickly, trying to hide her nervousness.

Betsy gawked at the shorter girl, and shook her head. "But that doesn't explain why. I mean, X-Factor is a pretty large team, why would they need new members?"

Kishi's mind was racing, she had known this wasn't going to be easy, lying to Betsy, but she had to do it. "They've grown so much that they feel they need an extra team. They want 8 man teams, so they need two more people to make the second 8 man team. They only have one psychic, so that's why we get to drag you along for a while. But they want you to sit out the missions, only act as a translator for me." Kishi knew that she was speaking too quickly and Betsy would pick up on the nervousness if she didn't calm down.

Betsy frowned and stood quickly. Walking to the shorter girl, she put her hand on Kishi's cheek and lifted her face to meet her eyes. Kishi sighed. She'd found out. Kishi's eyes were sad, she hated having to lie to Betsy, but Scott had made it very clear that she was not supposed to know the fine details. Suddenly she had an idea.

"Alright, I know you know I'm lying. I have to tell you this, because Scott said it's a secret group. He doesn't want anyone to know what we do." She turned her head slightly to kiss Betsy's palm. "I love you, I don't want to have to keep you in the dark, but I'm under orders."

Betsy smiled at the gentle kiss on her hand. "I love you too. Alright. If you can't tell me, that's fine. I agree to stay in the dark. I'll act like I believe every word you say, and they won't know the difference. But, when this is all said and done, and this 'secret' group of Scott's is disbanded, you'll tell me exactly what's going on. And you have to promise."

Kishi nodded. "I promise."

Six hours later, Laura, Kishi and Logan were in the Blackbird, taking off from the school. Kishi had said her good byes to Betsy and the rest of Evolution. Laura had looked very serious, but had said good bye to the rest of her team as well. The three man team was supposed to meet the rest of their team at the Alcatraz Facility that was to be their new home in San Francisco. Kishi was nervous. She could feel the warm touch that was Betsy's thoughts fade away as the plane moved quickly through the sky. She suddenly shivered and took a deep breath to steady herself from tears that threatened to pour down her face. Laura sniffed deeply suddenly and looked at Kishi.

"You alright?" she asked quietly.

Kishi shook her head. "Not right now. I can't feel Betsy anymore." Kishi whispered back.

"You'll get used to being alone." Laura said, her eyes narrowing at Kishi in concern. "It's the first thing you learn."


	5. Chapter 5

THREE WEEKS LATER

Kishi had settled in quickly to the large but empty facility on Alcatraz Island. She had her own, large room, with a private bathroom, and a tv in the corner. It was almost like being at home, except for the fact that her bed was empty. She had taken to sleeping as the wolf on the floor in the corner of the room, and had made a small pallet down there. The cold floor was nothing to the thick fur that she had, and it was less scary then trying to sleep alone. After all, she had been sleeping next to Laura for a long time before she had started sleeping next to Betsy. Her first few days had been hard, she had cried herself to sleep, but she was a little more ok now, and was sleeping peacefully when Wolverine entered the room.

"Feral!"

She lifted her head and growled sleepily at the person who was now in her room. Her jaws opened and she blinked her eyes furiously to try and see who was in her room. Ears pinned backwards to her head, she snarled angrily at getting woken up.

"It's just me!" he said, raising his hands in defense.

Feral blinked again, shaking her head and shifted back to her human form. Laying on the blankets, naked, she stretched and glared at Wolverine. He averted his eyes and cleared his throat, growling softly to himself.

"What?" she snapped after finishing her stretch.

"First question. Why the hell do you sleep naked?"

"Cause it's more comfortable than trying to sleep in that stupid leotard. It pinches in my wolf form." she growled, sitting up and turning to face him.

He shook his head and cleared his throat again, still avoiding looking at her. "Ok, fine. Get up, we have a mission. Meet the rest of the team in the briefing room in ten minutes."

She sighed, but nodded. "Yes sir." she slurred the word slightly, but his growl made her laugh in nervousness. "Ok, ok, I'm going!" she squeaked.

Fifteen minutes later, a fully dressed Kishi came sauntering through the door to the briefing room. Her hair was still wet from her shower, and she looked very agitated. She narrowed her eyes, glancing around the room daring anyone to say anything about her being late. Laura giggled softly, but other than that, Wolverine was the only one to make any mention of it.

"Nice of you to join us, Feral." he growled, anger clear on his face.

She quailed under his glare, and sat down quickly in the chair reserved for her. Her eyes darted around the room, but no one said anything to her. As soon as she was seated Wolverine cleared his throat and pushed a button on the console in front of him.

"We finally got intel on the person responsible for the string of mutant murders across the country. It's a mutant, by the name of 'Boogeyman'. It seems he uses telekinesis to cut open his victims' skulls and then does something to their brains." he paused.

Kishi looked up at Wolverine, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "Does what to their brains?"

Wolverine shook his head. "We're not sure, but it seems like he... dissects them. No one seems to have any other intel other than that, so this is what we're stuck with. We think he's going to be targeting another mutant, this time in Las Vegas. The intel we have leads us to believe that the target is a little boy by the name of Micah Sanders." he pressed another button on the console, and the picture of a 10 year old, African American boy popped up, as well as some further information. "This is Micah. We have his address and that's where some of the team will start. The rest of you will be canvassing the city in civilian clothes, attempting to spot anyone suspicious. We will land the Blackbird at the airport, which is about half way through the city. It will give Betsy the most coverage. She's still not to be informed as to what's going on. We know she'll pick up snippets, but she's not to out right be told what's going on. She will stay with the Blackbird, Scott's already prepping her now. She'll be teleported here with in the next hour. Here's the rundown of how this is going to go. Feral, Archangel, Warpath, Domino and Vanisher will be canvassing the town. Myself, Caliban and Talon will be at Micah's house. Vanisher, you'll start by bringing us all to Micah's house, then will teleport the others to random locations around town."

Vanisher held up his hand. Wolverine growled, but twitched his head at the dark skinned, tattooed man. "I don't work well with random. I'll bring them all to one locale, and then they'll split up from there."

Wolverine growled again. "Fine. One location it is. You'll all split up from there, and will hunt around town. You four," he said, waving his hands at Kishi's group. "Are some of my best trackers. You smell blood, you follow it. We have no information on what he looks like, so just follow anyone that looks suspicious. If you find him, contact the rest of the group with your location. Remember, do not rely on Betsy's psychic link. If you can, radio it in." Giving a stern look around the group, he paused. "Any questions?"

Kishi nodded at her boss. "Yeah, anything we need to be aware of that's going on in town? Like any conventions or anything?"

Wolverine shook his head. "No idea. We don't have that kind of intel."

Kishi growled softly but nodded. "How about the boy's powers? Anything that might be useful if we find him?"

"He communicates with technology. All he has to do is touch an electronic or mechanical thing and he can control it by speaking to it mentally." Wolverine said quietly.

The entire group gave a nod, thinking of respective ways to use it in a dire situation. Wolverine looked around the group again, then growled. "Any other questions?" At the negative head shakes from the entire group, he nodded. "Alright then, suit up and meet in the hangar in 30 minutes."

Thirty minutes later, the entire X-Force group was standing there, waiting for Betsy to arrive. Within another few moments though, a bright pink portal opened up, and Betsy stepped through. The portal closed quickly behind her, and she smiled brightly at the grim looking group in front of her. Kishi smiled in return and started to walk towards her girlfriend, but stopped as Wolverine cleared his throat.

"Mount up!" He snapped, pointing at the Blackbird.

The entire group moved quickly up the loading ramp of the plane. Betsy, still grinning, rubbed shoulders with Kishi as the pair walked up the loading ramp. Wolverine growled as he watched them, but Kishi suddenly spun to face him, her eyes narrowed with anger.

"What?" she snapped.

He snarled and narrowed his eyes in return at her, locking eyes with the shorter girl. "This is a mission, not a play date!"

Kishi's nose started to quiver as the growl started low in her throat. "We can't all be heartless machines, Logan." she snarled in return.

Betsy put her hand on Kishi's shoulder, trying to stop her, but Wolverine had already lost his anger, and was taking a step backwards. Kishi snorted and turned on her heel, stalking the rest of the way up the loading ramp, grabbing Betsy's hand firmly and dragging her to a pair of open seats. Flopping down in the seat, Kishi narrowed her eyes as Wolverine walked past, but he didn't look at her. Betsy stifled her giggle as she sat down next to Kishi, pulling on the harness that would keep her strapped to the wall of the plane. Kishi watched the back of Wolverine's head as he sat down at the controls. Pulling her own harness on violently, she was finally snapped out of her angry staring contest with the back of Wolverine's head by a soft voice in her mind.

~Calm down, I'm here now, and he understands what he said was wrong.~ Betsy's voice calmed the monster raging in her mind.

~I don't care. He's an ass. That's twice he's yelled at me today.~ Kishi sighed heavily.

~I understand love.~ Betsy reached out and took Kishi's hand.

Kishi looked over at her girlfriend, finally smiling at the purple haired girl. Laying her head down on Betsy's shoulder she sighed heavily with happiness. ~I missed you.~

Betsy returned the gesture by laying her cheek across the top of Kishi's head. ~I missed you too love. My bed has been very cold with out you in it.~

Kishi laughed out loud. ~My bed is now a pallet on the floor. I can't sleep in my normal form, I sleep as the wolf. I'm so lonely at night.~ She whimpered mentally at the last comment.

Betsy moved her head to kiss the top of Kishi's head. ~It's ok, love. It won't be long. I've got a plan.~

Kishi looked up at Betsy after her last comment, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. ~What plan?~

~Nope. It's a surprise.~ Betsy said, leaning forward and giving Kishi a quick kiss on the cheek.

Kishi gawked at her, but then squished her lips to the side, and frowned. "Fine." she said aloud, pouting.

Betsy giggled, wrapping her arm around Kishi's shoulders and shaking her softly. "No pouting, or you won't get to find out!" she giggled.

Within an hour, Wolverine was landing the Blackbird on an abandoned runway at the Las Vegas airport. Kishi gave Betsy a touch on the cheek as she got up to file with the rest of X-Force off of the plane. Wolverine growled and pointed to Betsy.

"You stay the hell here. We should be back in two hours. If not, don't move unless you get confirmation from me or Dom." he snarled.

She nodded, but narrowed her eyes at him as the purple butterfly shapes appeared next to her temples. The group moved out of the plane, Kishi giving Betsy a final look over her shoulder as she walked down the loading ramp and it closed behind her. Sighing heavily, she caught Laura looking at her, but the shorter, dark haired girl said nothing. Wolverine sighed and nodded to Vanisher, who smirked and then teleported the entire group with a pop. Kishi groaned and rubbed her ears as they appeared in front of a nice looking house in a quiet neighborhood. It was probably 7 am, but no one was out and about, which was a good thing for them. Wolverine, Laura and Caliban moved towards the house, Laura giving Kishi a smile over her shoulder, while Vanisher turned to the rest of the group and teleported them to an alley off the strip. Kishi groaned again, rubbing her ears more furiously this time, and leaned against the wall.

"That sucks, Vanisher." she growled.

He shrugged and smirked at her. "No one else complains." he said in his English accent.

She narrowed her eyes at him, but shrugged her jacket tighter around her shoulders, and moved past him out into the street. It was still cool yet this October morning, and as Kishi walked down the street, she ran into very few tourists. But she walked on. Acting as much like a tourist as she could, she would stop and pause and look at the sights, taking out her camera phone and taking pictures, but always her eyes were alert for anything strange. Walking past the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino, she paused again, looking at the sign for the next casino across the street, the Rivera. There, in large, plain letters, were the simple words that struck fear into her heart: Welcome Church of The Purifiers.

Immediately drawing out her phone again, and pretending to place a call, she actually touched the radio transmitter on her neck as she placed the phone to her ear. "Wolverine, we've got a big problem."

"Us too, Feral. What is it?" he snapped back into her ear.

"There's a freaking Purifier convention going on at the Rivera today."

"Aw, hell." She heard Wolverine's dejected sigh as he heard and processed the news. "Stay sharp, do not let them get wind of you. Their favorite tool of destruction is a flame thrower. It's not fun to get caught on fire, so stay out of their way."

"Roger that, continuing my sweep."

Kishi continued towards the end of the strip, where there were even fewer people out. It had only taken her about 45 minutes to meander this far from their starting point. Just as she was preparing herself to turn around and go back up the other side of the strip to meet back at the designated spot, she was approached by two men in black priest robes. She smiled and nodded at them politely, but tried to move past them to cross the street.

"Allow us to escort you across the street, young lady." One of the men said, moving to her left elbow and taking it gently.

She looked up at him, smiling again, trying to hide the fear in her eyes. These were purifiers. They smelled of blood and death, and from the over sized overcoat that the one on her right was wearing, they were packing heat... literally.

"I think I'm ok to cross the street by myself, father," she said politely. "Thank you very much for your offer though." she said the last as cheerfully as she could manage. Mentally, she growled, ~Anyone near me?~

~No,~ came the unanimous reply, but Domino added a split second later, ~I will have you in range of my scope in 5 minutes.~

~I'll probably be dead by then, or at least on fire...~ She muttered mentally.

Both of the men had narrowed their eyes at her as she had spoken mentally. The man on the left chuckled softly and sneered at her.

"Where are you staying, young lady? And where are your parents? Should you really be out in the City of Sin all by yourself?" he clicked his tongue and shook his head softly.

"Um, we're staying in the New York, New York." she lied quickly. "My parents are... um... I actually don't know right now. Seeing a show somewhere, I know that much," she chuckled nervously.

"Do you know what church we represent?" the man on the right spoke for the first time, his eyes narrowed harshly at her, but his voice was calm.

Kishi shook her head, trying to change her fear into a wide eyed look of wonder. She could tell it wasn't working. Hurry up! She thought silently.

"We represent the Church of the Purifiers." he said as she shook her head. "Do you know what the Church of the Purifiers represents?" at her second, equally as negative head shake, he smiled at her. "We represent the purity of the human race. No mutants are allowed, and we take action against those mutants who would dare harm humans. These actions may seem cruel to others, but is it no less cruel than what they do to our race." he was sneering openly at her now. "Do you know any mutants, young lady?" he asked her, tilting his head slightly.

Kishi knew that she was found out. Now it was just a matter of seconds before he pulled out that gun or whatever he had under his jacket and shot her. Knowing this almost threw her into a panic, but she kept her cool, even as she heard the squealing tires of a large vehicle coming to a stop next to the curb. Turning and facing the van, she stared, wide-eyed as four large men with flame throwers climbed out of it. Attempting to back away quickly got her grabbed by the two original men, and they started to drag her towards the van. Struggling with them for a second, she suddenly dropped her weight towards the ground, bending her knees and brought her arms closer together, sliding out of the jacket and scrambling backwards on her hands. Rolling to her feet, she faced the six men, her eyes narrowed in anger. Shifting forms got a single gasp from one of the men, but the others simply lit their flamethrowers and prepared to ignite her. She managed to move faster than the two that had been dragging her to the van, swinging huge paws at them, knocked them together, and unconscious. As they slipped to the ground, the other four purifiers opened fire on her, and she had to leap upwards to get out of the way. Landing on top of the van, a fifth purifier that she hadn't seen, opened fire with an automatic rifle, shooting her several times in the stomach as she crouched on top of the van.

Lucky shots, she moaned mentally as she growled and collapsed to the top of the van. Her body slipped off of the roof of the van, landing her heavily on the ground. ~Be... Wolverine, I need help, I'm about to be-~ she was cut off as one of the purifiers with a flamethrower stepped onto her muzzle, and put the still smoking end of the weapon about an inch from where his foot was.

"Stop talking to whoever you're talking to and shift back." he snarled.

Kishi growled, but he touched the hot end of the weapon to the fur on her cheek, and she whimpered in pain. As he pulled the weapon back, she shifted back to her human form, his foot now resting on her cheek. Groaning loudly with the pain in her stomach, she tried to roll over, but he kept his foot firmly on her face. Pointing into the van, he said something that she couldn't hear over the sudden high pitched electronic buzzing in her ears. Looking as far as she could, she barely got a glimpse of something metallic as they moved her hair and fixed something cold, metal and sharp around her neck. Hearing the click and hiss of a clasp being shut at the back of her neck, she started to panic. Putting her hands to her neck in an attempt to figure out what they had just put on her got her kicked fiercly in the stomach. She groaned again in pain as the still unhealed wounds on her stomach were reopened. She wasn't healing, she realized after a moment of sharp, uninterrupted pain. The collar that they had put on her was restricting her ability. She tried to squeal in pain as she was picked up, but as one of the flamethrowers was still trained on her face, she closed her mouth quickly.

The purifiers put her in the van and were in the process of jumping into it as well, when a voice from the alley just off to the left of the van stopped them. "Where are you boys going?" the voice was deep, but quiet, but was clearly heard over the noise of the collar in Kishi's ears and the sound of the running van.

The four conscious purifiers had dragged their two unconscious compatriots into the van, but all four stopped and turned towards the sound of the voice. Flamethrowers lifted, all four prepared to fire on anyone that got in their way.

"None of your business, sir. Move along." one of the purifiers growled.

Kishi was starting to pass out from blood loss, and the driver of the van, was looking back over his shoulder, out the open door of the van. Kishi tried to stay sitting up right, but after only a moment slumped over to the left, landing heavily on the bottom of the van. She could see a little better that way, but she still couldn't see the source of the voice. One of the purifiers said something that she didn't catch, and suddenly, all four were screaming and firing their flamethrowers. Kishi could barely keep her eyes open, but the flashes that she did see were of purifiers flying left and right, their throats cut by some invisible force. Another mutant must have seen what had happened to her and was moving to protect her. She was saved. She would have laughed with joy if she wasn't struggling firmly to keep from passing out. The van moved and she looked up to see the driver of the van climbing out of his seat and standing over her, gun pointed out of the van, trembling slightly. Her eyes closed again and she heard his scream, then felt the warm blood splashing over her face. Opening her eyes back up, she pried them open in time to see the top of a head fall on the floor of the van next to her face. Her eyes went wide at this point and she found the strength to push her head away from it. The final purifier was dragged out of the van, and it moved again. Looking up, she saw a tall man with short but shaggy brown hair, and deep brooding brown eyes, dressed in what looked to be a blood covered cardigan sweater, and brown dress slacks.

He tilted his head sharply to look down at her, then reached out with his right hand to touch her cheek. She tried desperately to shy away, but her body was shutting down from blood loss. He gave her a strange smile and gently wiped some of the blood off of her lips. Wiping his hand on a handkerchief that he produced from his left pocket, he reached out and wiped more of the blood off of her face with the handkerchief.

"You know who I am, don't you?" he said quietly.

Kishi panted with the strain of staying conscious, but managed to nod her head.

"You were sent to hunt me down, weren't you?"

She nodded again.

He gave her that strange, otherworldly smile again. "Strange how the hunter is now captured, and is my prey..." he murmured before standing up as best he could, given the fact that he was a bit taller than the inside of the van, and lifting his foot, brought it down on Kishi's face, knocking her the rest of the way unconscious.

Kishi groaned as she heard the click and hiss of a metal object being fastened around her neck. Her eyes snapped open and she thrashed, but it was too late. The collar that restricted her mutant powers was back around her neck, and the man she was supposed to be hunting was standing over her, staring down at her. He gave her that same smile, and backed away slowly. She was in a sitting position, but as she tried to move to get up off of whatever she was sitting on, she found her hands had been handcuffed to something, her arms extended in a cross like position. Her legs were free, and using her body weight as best she could, she thrashed again, and tried to kick at him as he backed away. She missed by a long shot, and groaned again as the handcuffs bit into the flesh on her thin wrists. Settling back down, she took a deep breath and glanced quickly around the room. She was in a small hotel room, her hands bound to the bed that she was sitting on. Her eyes darted back to him as he moved to sit in the chair near the end of the bed. He had changed clothes, but was still wearing that stupid looking cardigan, though it was clean now. His head was tilted again, and he had a very curious look on his face.

She took a deep breath, her nose scrunching up in a snarl. But as she began to open her mouth to speak, he lifted his hand and cut her off.

"Before you say anything, know you've been solidly unconscious for almost an hour, and I've had no desire to cut open your skull. Don't portray me as a complete monster, I did save your life, after all." He inclined his head to her, as if to signal her to speak.

Kishi paused, blinking furiously at this realization. Shaking her head and narrowing her eyes at him, she spoke softly. "Why not?"

"Because, as unique as your power is, I don't want it. The way your power works, or so I'm assuming as I haven't opened up your skull, is that the werewolf part provides the perks. The healing, the enhanced senses, the jumping ability, the pheromones, though it seems like you can't control those..." he trailed off after a moment, seeming to analyze the situation. "Anyway, you can't have those without the wolf, and I don't think that it would be a power that I would want to add to my collection." he said, matter-of-factually.

Kishi blinked furiously again, the confusion plain on her face. "What the hell are you talking about?"

He chuckled softly. "So you don't understand yet, do you?" shaking his head, he continued before Kishi could get out another word. "The reason I inspect those mutant's brains is to understand and duplicate their powers. If I can fully understand how something works, I can duplicate it. Unfortunately, to do this, it requires cutting open their skulls and inspecting their cerebellums. This ultimately leads to their deaths. It is a regrettable outcome, but one that is unavoidable if I am to continue to enhance myself."

Kishi jerked her head back slightly in response to this. "Wait, what do you mean, regrettable?"

The man chuckled again. "You're still painting me as a monster." he tilted his head again. "I..." he trailed off and closed his eyes. "I do things to understand. I... _need_ to understand. The desire is overwhelming. If I do not understand things, I get upset. My brain drives me to do these things." he shook his head, opening his eyes back up to look at her again.

Something in his stare made her shiver involuntarily. "So... you're telling me that you don't want to do these things?"

At her comment, he drew in a sudden breath, scrunched his eyes back closed, scrunching up his nose as well, and held up his hand as if to disagree with her. But after a second of this confused look, he slowly opened his eyes back up and locked eyes with her. Shaking his head slowly, he watched her reaction.

She blinked. Kishi's mind had been so dead set on hating this man because of what he had done, but it all started to fall into place. His power... it had something to do with understanding. Something that was forcing him to cut open these mutants heads and learn how their powers worked. It was like an addict, once they were hooked. They couldn't stop themselves. Something in their brains drove them to seek more of the feeling. That was what was happening here. Suddenly, she knew what she had to do.

"What's your name?" she said quietly.

"Sylar." he answered simply, looking away from her.

"Ok, Sylar, I'm Kishi. Nice to meet you."

He frowned and looked back at her. "Ok, you too." he shook his head and rolled his eyes slightly.

"I think I know some people that can help you, Sylar."

After a long pause, he snapped. "Who would want to help me? Other than lock me in a cage and throw away the key."

"That's not helping. That's forgetting that you are still a person, with flaws and faults but good things about you too. These people I know... They'd be willing to try to help you for real. Like therapy or something." She paused for a long moment, letting him decide, before adding one final comment. "And if it's your power that's making you want to rip people's heads open, maybe we should get rid of it."

He glared at her. "But then I wouldn't be special."

"Sure you would! And if you learn how to control it, then you could get it back. It'd be like it never left." she said quickly.

"The collar..." he said quietly, looking at her sideways. "You are very intelligent. I've been living with this since I was 18, and haven't thought of that."

She smiled sincerely at him. "Sometimes it takes another set of eyes looking at the problem first." Professor McCoy had always said that.

He laughed softly and rose from the chair, walking quickly over to her. She knew that he wouldn't harm her, but had no idea what he was doing. She gasped softly as he released her left wrist, then walked around the bed to the other, releasing that as well. She watched him, with confusion plain on her face, but he motioned for her to lean forward, and she did, letting him undo the collar, and sighing in pleasure at the release of pressure on her neck. Grimacing as she rubbed her neck, she looked back up at him. He held the collar firmly in his hands, but they were trembling slightly. Kishi smiled at him softly, but as her heightened senses came slowly back to her, she heard the low sound of the tv on the dresser and frowned.

"This just in! We're receiving reports that a broadcast is about to take over this one, where... a mutant is about to-" the reporter's voice was cut off by a hissing static for a few seconds before the static became another voice.

"I am the Reverend William Stryker. We here at the Church of the Purifiers have long known about the mutant menace in out society. They are wicked! They defile our streets with their strange and alien powers! They steal, pillage, plunder and murder! And the government does nothing about it! Well I say to you, enough is enough! We here will take no more! That is why we are helping to bring about the end of this mutant menace in our own way!"

He extended his arm behind him, and the curtain that was on stage was pulled back by two men that were dressed the same as the two men who had tried to capture her today. Taking a moment to glance up at Sylar, she frowned as his eyes were focused on the tv as well.

"They're going to kill a mutant on live tv." he said quietly.

Kishi had started to look back at the tv, but stopped herself and quickly turned her head to look back at him. "Serious?"

He blinked at her improper grammar, but nodded his head. "It seems that way."

Looking back at the tv, the camera had shifted and was now showing a small African American child on the screen. Kishi bolted upright, getting out of the bed and moving to the tv.

"That's the boy-"

"You were supposed to save from me. I know." Sylar cut her off.

A pop of displaced air made her turn. She gasped as a forceful mental presence screamed into her mind.

~Kishi! Are you alright?~

Looking to her left, she saw a large pink portal had opened. Out of it came Psylocke and Blink, both looking ready to kill. Kishi heard Sylar's growl, a split second before the two girls went flying across the room. Spinning to face him, she moved quickly towards him.

"Wait! They're not here to hurt you!" she yelled.

Sylar paused, looking down at her. His hand was out, holding Psylocke and Blink to the wall with the powerful telekinesis he possessed. He trembled slightly, but locked eyes with her. Kishi reached out and gently put her hand on his other arm, the one that was still holding the collar.

"It's alright, I promise."

Sylar watched her carefully for a long second before slowly lowering the two girls to the floor again. Betsy and Clarice both gasped for air for a moment, before Betsy came running to Kishi's side. Grabbing her girlfriend in a fierce hug, Betsy kissed the shorter girl firmly on the lips before pulling back and inspecting her.

"Are you alright?" she whispered softly.

Kishi nodded and smiled up at Betsy. "How did you find me?"

Betsy smiled. "I can find you anywhere. Just took a bit of coercing with Wolverine to allow me to take Blink and find you. He wanted me to take Vanisher, but he's not good with pictures." Looking past her at Sylar, Betsy frowned then looked back down at Kishi. "What happened?"

Kishi shrugged. "I was getting captured by some purifiers, and Sylar helped me. I didn't think it was helping at the time, but it's ok." She pointed to the TV behind Betsy. "We've got bigger problems, however."

Betsy and Clarice both turned to the TV and stared at it as William Stryker went on and on about how the mutant menace needed to be dealt with. Kishi however, had turned to look at Sylar. The man had his eyes closed and was concentrating, his brows narrowed. After few seconds, he opened his eyes back up and blinked furiously. Kishi watched him closely until his eyes focused on her. His eyes had a strange look in them, but he shook it off quickly and looked past her to the TV.

"I know where they are." he said quietly.

All three girls stared at him, but Kishi held up her hand to cut off Clarice's exclamation of "How the hell did you..."

Kishi took a step closer to him and tilted her head. "Can you give the picture to Betsy?"

He shook his head. "Probably, but it would be easier to give it to the teleporter."

She shook her head and laughed softly. "So you're telepathic too? Is there anything you can't do?"

He looked at her seriously. "I can't transform into a werewolf."

~Can we trust him?~ Betsy said quietly to Kishi.

~I think so. If not, I'll rip him to pieces.~ she answered firmly back.

He quirked an eyebrow at Kishi, but she shook her head. "Let's go. Clarice, get the image from Sylar and take us there."

Clarice narrowed her eyes at him, but nodded. After a moment's long staring contest, she blinked furiously and nodded again, turning and opening a portal. The three girls and Sylar moved though the portal and came out quickly on the other side. They came out in a small closet some how, crammed into the small room. Kishi managed to keep everyone quiet as she moved towards the door. Opening it slightly, there was no one in sight. Shutting it back quickly, she turned back to the group.

"Ok, so there's no one out there right now, but they may be any where." she whispered.

Sylar smiled at her like she was a small child. "Don't worry about it. I will handle any one we run into. Just stay in this form." he said just as quietly and then moved past the three girls to open the door boldly.

Kishi stared at his back as he just walked into the hall. Looking back at the other two girls, she shook her head, but followed Sylar out of the closet. The three girls creeped after Sylar, but he sauntered down the hall as if he owned the place. As they turned left down another hall, the three girls froze as a purifier came down the hall towards them. Sylar simply smiled and inclined his head towards the man. He smiled in return, but paused and looked at the three girls.

"Good evening," he said softly. "You four must be from out of town," he turned and pointed down the hall way that he had just come from. "You'll go down this hall and to the right, it's the second set of doors on the left. You'll come out in the back of the theater, but if you'll be quiet, no one will notice you." he smiled at the girls.

Sylar grinned widely at the man, and bowed slightly. "Thank you so much, brother. We will go join the proceedings now."

Kishi stared at him as the man simply smiled, nodded and moved off down the hall. Sylar motioned them forward and they continued down the hall.

~What the hell was that?~ Betsy asked Kishi.

~I have no clue.~ Kishi shook her head, but followed Sylar at his fast pace down the hall.

The four of them followed the directions given by the purifier, and within moments were walking towards the double doors that he had mentioned. Sylar paused for only a moment, before opening the door quickly. Kishi gasped as the door opened, there were at least a hundred purifiers in the room, all of them sitting and watching William Stryker speak on the dangers of the mutant race. A man standing to the side of the door as Sylar entered turned and glanced at the group before Sylar could lock eyes with him. The man yelled and drew his gun, pointing it at Sylar's head. Kishi moved in a flash, shoving Sylar out of the way and taking the bullet into her shoulder as she started her transformation. She finished shifting and turned to growl low in her throat at the man with the gun.

He fired again and again, in a matter of seconds emptying the clip into Feral's chest. The werewolf growled and hunched over, holding her chest, but after only a moment, straightened up slowly, keeping her eyes closed as she did so, until she was fully upright, then opening them and snarling down at the man. The man narrowed his eyes and glared up at the giant werewolf in front of him.

"Mutant beast! You've just signed your own death warrant!" He yelled, and Feral heard the sounds of the purifiers in the audience moving.

Feral snarled and back handed the man, throwing him into the crowd. Sylar had scrambled to his feet and was at William Stryker's back, his hands around the man's throat. Psylocke was using her power to not only cut through purifier's bodies with her psy knife, but also to put them out before they could rush the stage.

~Blink!~ Feral roared mentally. ~Get the boy and open a portal!~ she ordered, even as she leapt through the air to land next to Sylar and Stryker. Grabbing the reverend by the throat, she lifted him six feet into the air, and turned to roar at the purifiers storming up the steps to the stage. They all stopped in their tracks at the sight of their revered leader being choked by a 8 foot tall werewolf.

~Translate for me, would you?~ Feral asked Sylar, who nodded. ~We trade your reverend for the boy. We leave unmolested and you will have him back in the same condition.~

"One more step and we will kill him. We're taking Stryker and the boy. If you don't follow us, we'll leave him somewhere in town, naked, for you to find, but alive." Sylar said out loud.

Feral growled at the gross mistranslation, but continued to hold Stryker at arm's length. Stryker struggled, but couldn't free himself from her powerful grasp. The purifiers started to back off, just as Feral heard the pop of Blink's portal.

~Psy! Blink! Get through the portal, take the boy.~

"If I go, it closes!" Blink cried out loud.

Feral saw out of the corner of her eye that a purifier in the back was getting brave, and standing on a chair and lifting a rocket launcher to his shoulder. Moving without thinking, she threw Stryker into the crowd of purifiers standing at the edge of the stage, and turning in a split second, used her still outstretched arm to grab the back of Sylar's jacket, and dragging him with her with one hand, dove towards Blink and the portal with the other. Pushing Sylar through the portal even as she grabbed Blink with the other and spun, falling backwards, dragging Blink with her through the portal. Feral landed heavily on her back as the portal closed behind them, they were in the desert, near the airport, but far from the purifiers. Feral lay on her back for a long moment, her eyes closed, panting heavily. She could feel the blood pouring from her back from the lucky shots as she had moved to the portal. She felt Blink move off of her and opened one eye to look at Psylocke. The purple haired girl was crouched down next to the giant wolf head, and was watching her girlfriend closely. Feral whimpered softly but nodded her head. Growling softly, she slowly rolled to her feet, and as she felt the wounds close, shifted back to her human form.

Staggering slightly, she was grabbed by a strong hand. Lifting her head and staring with wide eyes at Sylar, she opened her mouth.

He cut her off however, by holding out the collar. "I agree."

She tilted her head at him, half a smile on her lips. "Serious?"

He flinched at the improper grammar again, but nodded. "Gabriel."

She shook her head quickly in confusion. "What?"

"My name is Gabriel. Not Sylar." He seemed to be shaking slightly, but he lifted the collar to his neck.

Psylocke flinched at that moment, ripping the radio transmitter from her ear and growling. "Wolverine is going to blow a fuse if we don't check in."

"Tell him we'll be at the airport in a few moments." Kishi said, then turned to the little boy.

Crouching down, she smiled up at him. "Hi, my name is Kishi, are you Micah?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, thanks for rescuing me!" he said cheerfully, wrapping himself around around her neck.

Kishi giggled in surprise, but hugged the boy back. "C'mon, we'll get you home."

Kishi looked at Blink, the pink skinned girl nodded in return and opened another portal. The group moved quickly through it, appearing next to the Blackbird. An furious Wolverine was the next ordeal that Kishi had to deal with.

"Where the hell have you three been?" Wolverine's roar was enough to make Kishi flinch.

But Psylocke stepped in between them before he could yell more. "We were completing the mission!" she snapped back, glaring at him, and pointing back at the boy who was cowering behind Kishi.

Wolverine's shocked look almost made Kishi laugh, but she knew that she was going to get the ass chewing of a lifetime after they got back to the base and Betsy left. Betsy and Logan glared at each other for a long moment, before Wolverine motioned for Vanisher to take the boy home.

"I'm sure we'll meet again," Kishi said softly as she bent down to give the boy a hug good bye.

"I hope so, you were awesome!" he chirped, then moved to stand next to Vanisher's side as the man motioned him over.

Kishi smiled softly as they disappeared, but then looked at Gabriel.

"And who the hell is this?" Wolverine had growled just as she was getting ready to introduce him.

"This is Gabriel... better known as the Boogeyman." she growled turning back to him. "He has a problem that I think the Professor and maybe even Jean would love to help him with."

Wolverine had the same shocked look on his face. Within a moment he had wiped it off, however, and was glaring at her again. "This is not a charity! We don't just take in every mutant off the street and fix their problems. This man is a killer and deserves to be treated as such!" He shouted, pointing over Kishi's shoulder at the man behind her.

"I think the Professor would argue with you on that! Aren't most of the students there runaways or orphans, or kids who's powers are so out of control that they need help?" she snapped back, taking an aggressive step towards her boss. "He has a power that is out of control! He needs help! I don't know if he's sorry for what he did, but he's trying to stop! If you're so narrow minded that you can't see a way to help someone that needs it, you can just go to hell!"

Wolverine shook his head and pulled it back, his eyes wide with the way that Kishi was standing up to him. Growling, taking a deep breath and shaking his head more slowly this time, he closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Fine. We bring him back to base and then let the Professor decide what to do with him." Wolverine snarled, then moved quickly around Kishi to grab Gabriel's arm.

The taller man moved without resistance, watching Kishi as Wolverine led him up the loading ramp of the Blackbird. Kishi smiled at him, trying to tell him that it would be fine, and he nodded in response. Kishi took a deep breath and turned back to Betsy. The purple haired girl was giving her a strange look, but smiled softly at her girlfriend.

"I'm sure it'll be fine love." Betsy said, wrapping her arm around Kishi's shoulders. "Let's go home."

Clarice followed them, putting her arm around Kishi's waist as the three followed the rest of X Force up the loading ramp and on to the plane.


	6. Chapter 6

ONE MONTH LATER

The phone was ringing. Kishi slammed her hand down on the vibrating thing, trying to grab it. It slipped off the nightstand and Kishi dove after it, smacking her head on the nightstand, and falling out of the bed. Squealing in indignation as she landed face first on the floor, she grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" she yelled into the phone.

"Quiet!" Betsy's voice came from the other side of the bed.

Kishi shushed her, lifting a hand to wipe the blood from her forehead as she waited for the answer on the other line. The short pause and then loud hissing noise gave away who was on the other line before he ever spoke.

"Get back to base, now." Wolverine's voice sounded tired.

Kishi managed to pry open her eyes and glance at the clock. It was almost 5 am. "Why does intel for missions almost always come in the middle of the night?" she snapped into the phone.

"Who gives a fuck?" he snapped back. "Get your ass back here and bring Psylocke with you."

"Fine." Pushing the button on the phone, she crawled back into the bed, curling herself around Betsy, who had turned on her side, facing away from Kishi. "Baby..." she whispered into Betsy's ear, a purr in her voice.

"Un hun." Betsy said grumpily, waving Kishi away.

"Baby..." Kishi purred again, blowing her warm breath into Betsy's ear, then giving it a small lick.

Betsy moaned again, less grumpy this time, but then gave a loud whine. "It's too early!"

"I know baby, but if you hurry, we can get in the shower..." Kishi whispered.

Betsy sat bolt upright and grabbed Kishi's hand. "And we're waiting for what?" she giggled, dragging the shorter girl with her into the bathroom.

Forty five minutes later, the two girls finally climbed out of the small boat that had been hired to take them back and forth from the island, and onto the loading dock. Wolverine looked pissed, and was standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, eyebrows knitted together. Kishi and Betsy were giggling so hard that they didn't notice until Wolverine cleared his throat.

"About damn time," he growled. "Get inside!" he snapped.

Both girls giggled again and skittered past him, into the hangar of the base. Both girls shook off the snow that had fallen in their hair and on their heavy coats. November in San Francisco was not as cheerful as the rest of the year. Wolverine slammed the door shut behind them and stalked after them, bumping heavily into Kishi's shoulder as he moved between them. Kishi started to growl at him, but Betsy's hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Psylocke stays here. Feral, you come with me." Wolverine snarled as he walked away.

Kishi looked apologetically over her shoulder as she followed Wolverine, but Betsy shook her head and winked at her.

~I'll be right there...~ she murmured mentally.

Kishi hid her smile from Wolverine as she followed her leader into the briefing room. Taking off her jacket, she settled down into her chair, looking around at the rest of the team. Wolverine pushed a couple of buttons on the console, and a map of the United States appeared overhead. He pushed another button and the map zoomed into a close view of somewhere in the state of Montana. A third button press and the map shifted to a heat signature type map. A deeply red square showed up against the pale blue of the rest of the map, with darker red dots in it. Kishi tilted her head and studied it carefully as Wolverine began to speak.

"This is a purifier base. Orders are to destroy it and anyone or anything in it. We know they have anti-aircraft guns so we'll be going in low and fast, and dropping a good distance from the base itself. Everyone will be equipped with enough grenades to blow themselves up, so you're to blow the place to hell. Anyone and everyone in this base is fair game. I want no one left alive." he snarled the last, glaring around the group, as if daring anyone to say anything.

Kishi gulped, but knew that it was what she had asked for when she came here. Laura locked eyes with Kishi, but the taller dark haired girl gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head, and flicked her head towards Wolverine. The thickly muscled man, however, had seen the exchange and glared at Kishi.

"You got a problem, Feral?" He snarled.

Kishi narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. "No sir."

"Maybe we shouldn't bring the kids on this mission..." Domino snapped.

Kishi turned to glare at the older woman. "Fuck you, Dom. I'm no kid."

"You sure as hell act like it!" the taller woman snapped, getting to her feet. "Don't wanna kill purifiers, don't wanna kill anybody. Little kid with little kid morals. Grow up."

Kishi got to her feet as well and was snarling. "I never said I wouldn't kill purifiers. I never said I wouldn't kill anyone!"

"Then why the hell is the boogeyman still in our holding cells? He should have been turned over to SHEILD by now and we should have killed him in the first place! Collar or no, he's dangerous! I don't get why we get to be babysitters for a serial killer." Domino snapped back at the shorter girl.

Kishi pulled her head back and blinked furiously at this attack on Gabriel. The man had asked for help, and the Professor had agreed to help him, that was supposed to be the end of it. Kishi hadn't known that the rest of the team felt that way.

"Shut up, Dom." Wolverine's growl came as Kishi started to sink back into her chair. "Now's not the fucking time for it. We can argue about this goody good shit when we get back." Kishi glared up at him but didn't say a word. "Any fucking questions?" he growled. At the negative head shakes from the entire group, he motioned out of the room. "Go get geared up."

The entire team filed out of the room, Kishi the last one out. Laura dropped back and waited for Kishi to catch up to her. The shorter dark haired girl watched her ex carefully, but Kishi seemed lost in her thoughts. Why was it just now that she was being informed that no one here really wanted to help Gabriel? Why was it that Domino thought that she was a little kid? Had she not shown her prowess in Las Vegas? But had she killed anyone in Vegas? She shook her head. No, she hadn't.

"Everything ok, Kishi?" Laura said, as Kishi finally stopped next to the shorter girl.

Kishi blinked at Laura several times before shaking her head. "Am I a kid?"

"Physically speaking, yes. But mentally, I wouldn't be able to begin to speculate. I'm not the psychic, remember?" she said, narrowing her eyes at her ex.

Kishi gave Laura a confused look, but the brunette had already moved off.

Within two hours, the plane was hovering over a frozen forest in Montana. Feral and Wolverine were standing on the lowered loading ramp of the Blackbird, the wind blowing against them heavily as it was kicked up by the jets of the plane. Domino lowered the plane to the ground quickly, landing it heavily in the trees. Wolverine turned back to the team and pumped his fist in the air, and the entire team moved off the plane. He moved his fist in a circle, then spread out his fingers slowly, and lowered his hand at the same time, motioning for the team to spread out and move forward. Feral was in between Wolverine and Talon as she moved through the forest. She could hear the cracking of the snow and ice under everyone's feet, but knew that they were being quiet enough where no normal human would be able to hear them. The entire group moved quietly through the trees towards the base.

There were two guards outside a small door as they crouched in the trees. Domino's silenced shots took them down quickly. The entire group went at a dead sprint towards the door, Feral reaching it first. Slamming into the door, it swung open easily, and the giant werewolf stopped to take stock of what was in front of her. There was a set of elevator doors and a door to her left leading to a set of stairs leading downwards. Growling at the lack of guards and security, she shifted back quickly and looked back at Wolverine.

"I don't like this." she said quietly. "Something doesn't feel right."

Wolverine nodded and growled himself. "I agree. This doesn't smell like purifiers. They should have a hundred guards out already. Everybody stay frosty." Growling into the radio around his neck, he radioed the plane. "Psylocke, put the mental link into place." Within seconds everyone's minds were connected, just enough for them to hear each others thoughts. Growling out loud, he continued. "We have no idea how low this facility goes, so everyone stay in contact. If you get to where you can't use your radio, use the mental link."

~Um... I hate to sound like I can't do my job,~ Betsy interjected. ~but there are a lot of people in there. I'm counting at least 300. As far as you guys are from me, it's hard to hold it now. I don't know how big this place is, and I'm afraid I won't be of any help.~

Wolverine growled out loud and tossed his head at Vanisher. The dark skinned man lifted his eye brow, but nodded and disappeared with a pop of displaced air. A second later he was back, Psylocke holding his hand. Psylocke took a deep breath, but nodded at Wolverine's growl.

"Alright. You're here, but anything you see, and everything you hear is forgotten, immediately. Do you hear me?" he snapped.

"Yes, sir." she said softly.

He growled again, but looked around at the rest of the group. "Feral, you're responsible for her. If she gets hurt it's on you." he paused and glared at her, but she nodded quickly. "Alright. Here's the plan. Talon, Feral, Psylocke and Domino will go as far down those stairs as possible. Then fan out and find and destroy anything you can. If this is a purifier base, kill them. Warpath, Caliban, Vanisher and myself will go to the first floor and do the same. Archangel, I want you back outside, covering the air. Make sure no planes leave, and anyone on the surface, kill them." the entire group gave a nod and he circled his hand in the air.

Kishi shifted forms and looked at Psylocke. ~Stay near me. I'll keep you safe.~

Psylocke smiled at her and nodded, then her, and the three other women moved through the door, Feral in the lead. They moved quickly down the stairs, going down flight after flight of them. Feral and Talon were having a sniffing contest, they both could smell that there had been a lot of people in this stairwell recently. Feral growled but they continued down the stairs, moving as quickly as possible. Finally, the stairs ended, and the four females moved through the door out into a huge hallway. The hallway went three ways, left, right, and straight ahead. Feral looked down the hallway to the right, Domino pointed her scope down the hallway straight ahead, and Talon glared down the hallway to the left.

~What's the plan, Dom?~ Feral growled mentally.

Domino hesitated. "Um. We should..."

Feral rolled her eyes and shook her head. ~We should split up. Go the direction you're facing, until you can't go that way anymore, blow up and ki... destroy whatever you find there, then turn around and come right back. If this base has any... logic to it, each floor will start like this. We'll repeat the plan on each floor.~ Feral growled mentally.

"That's a great plan." Domino said out loud.

Feral heard Talon growl in frustration, but the group split up, Psylocke staying a footstep behind Feral. Feral moved slowly down the hall, her nose sniffing loudly for any signs of guards, but there was no one. The hall was very long, and after only a moment, she couldn't hear the sounds of the footsteps of the others. She slid to a stop, her claws making a loud clicking noise on the tile of the floor, as she approached a cross hall. Sticking her nose out into the hall, she sniffed again and looked left and right down the hall. She heard the click of a gun as she started to turn her head to the right, and jerked her head back as a barrage of bullets whizzed past her head and slammed into the other wall of the hall that they were standing in. Moving to cover Psylocke from the shrapnel that flew towards them, Feral snarled loudly.

~Stay here!~ she snapped mentally as she turned suddenly and prepared herself to leap into the hall.

The high ceiling allowed her plenty of room to leap into the hallway. She landed heavily on all fours, then raced towards her opponent. The man fired at her again, his dark eyes narrowed and a sadistic grin on his face. She leapt and dodged, only getting hit a few times, but yelping as one bullet slammed into the space between her collar bones. She slid to a stop as his guns clicked with empty magazines. Growling and lowering her head, she glared at him.

He was an asian man, with dark hair and dark eyes with a strange glint in them. He dropped the guns and then held out his arms and grinned at her.

"Hit me!" he yelled, waving Feral towards him.

Feral hesitated, but then prepared to leap for him. ~Wait!~ Psylocke's voice in her mind stopped her. ~I can read his thoughts! He absorbs kinetic energy! If you hit him he gets stronger!~

Feral pulled her head back and tilted it sideways. Growling angrily at him as he took a few steps towards her, she watched him carefully.

"Hit me!" he roared, moving towards her further.

Feral snarled and stood to her full height. Opening her jaws, she growled loudly at him, taking a step forward. Kinetic energy meant she couldn't hit him. He'd just probably absorb it and dish it back out to her two fold. Fine. It didn't mean she couldn't grab him however...

Moving with no warning, she reached out and grabbed him. He struggled in her grasp, his eyes going wide with shock. He squirmed in her arms, but couldn't free himself from her powerful grasp. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on everything but Betsy in an attempt to keep what she was about to do out of her girlfriend's head. Lifting her neck, she tilted her head downwards and to the side, opening her jaws, and placing them around the man's head. He screamed as he felt her sharp fangs sink into his flesh and struggled again, but Feral held him firmly. She took a deep breath and began to slowly twist his head. He screamed again and tried to resist her powerful jaws, but his head slowly turned further and further with her jaws. As she was about a split second from finishing the job and breaking his neck, a loud popping sound behind her made her turn.

Spinning suddenly and snarling around the man's head, she glared at the man who had appeared in the hallway behind her. He was wearing a red and black outfit with a mask over his face and was holding a gun, pointing it at Feral's head. He stopped, and slightly lowered the gun however, as he saw the man in her arms.

"Zero?" he said, in a voice that was very squeaky.

"Get me the fuck out of here, Wilson! She's going to break my neck!" the man in Feral's arms screamed.

"HAHAHAAHAHAAA!" the man in the mask started laughing hysterically.

Feral snarled and started to twist further. Zero screamed again, his arms and legs flailing. Feral held on to him tighter and just kept twisting. She could feel the tendons in his neck start to pop.

"Finally found someone who could kill you, huh, Zero?" the man in front of Feral laughed, wiping imaginary tears from the eyes of the mask. "Ah... well, I'll see you in hell, buddy!" he laughed again.

Feral looked past the man in the mask, noticing that Psylocke had come around the corner and was watching her, carefully. Feral began to tremble slightly at the sight of her girlfriend watching her kill a man. The man in the red outfit turned and saw Psylocke as well.

"Oh who..." he whistled softly, turning the gun towards her.

Feral roared around Zero's head, then twisted finally, breaking Zero's neck. The man fell limp in her grasp and she released her hold on him, dropping his limp body to the ground. Roaring again, she crouched down on all fours and standing over the man she had just killed, started to move slowly towards the man in red. He turned, pointing a second gun at Feral.

"Ah, ah, ah, fur ball. Stop right there or I blow your brains out, then kill your little friend." the man said calmly.

Feral snarled at him and continued forward, her steps slow and deliberate. He glared at her and as he started to pull the trigger, she moved her head slightly so that the bullet would impact her shoulder. The sharp pain of the bullet slamming into her shoulder made her growl and stop, but she turned her head and licked the wound, her eyes still focused on the man in the mask. He stared at her, and the gun slowly started to lower as she snarled louder, showing all of the fangs in her mouth, and taking another slow, deliberate step towards him. He took a step back and suddenly dropped the gun.

"Alright!" he squeaked. "I can't kill you, you can't kill me. This is a mexican stand off!" he laughed slightly, but at Feral's growl, stopped laughing. "Alright! Listen, I know why you're here, and I'll tell you what, if you promise to take me with you, I'll help you."

Feral narrowed her eyes and took a few more steps towards him.

Psylocke beat her to it though. "What do you mean, we can't kill you?"

He turned to face the purple haired girl and chuckled. "I've got a healing factor better than Weapon X's. You could cut off my head and I'd still laugh at you." He shrugged and glanced over his shoulder towards Feral. "Call off your dog, would ya?"

Feral roared her rage and prepared to leap for him, but a sudden sharp stabbing pain stopped her in her tracks. Ten points of fire were digging into her back and shoulders. She roared again and straightened up, trying to reach back and grab whatever was attacking her. The pain was increased as whatever was on her back dug itself further into her flesh. Spinning quickly, she faced her back to the wall and shoved herself backwards as hard as she could. A woman's angry scream came as Feral slammed her back into the wall. Growling angrily, Feral shoved her feet against the floor and pushed backwards with all her force, hearing the wall crack under the immense power she was exerting to get the woman off of her back. The points of pain did not remove themselves from her body, however, and she staggered forward, taking pressure off the wall for a moment before slamming again into the wall. The woman screamed again, but then suddenly, Feral felt a long, sharp pain as the things inserted into her flesh were drawn out. Spinning and launching herself away from the wall at the same time, Feral turned to see a tall, long limbed woman with long black hair, sinking, unconscious, to the floor. Long, blood soaked claws were sliding slowly back into her finger tips.

Feral roared at the unconscious woman, her anger the only thing keeping her upright. Turning, she returned her attention to the man in red and black, her eyes narrowed as she glared at him. He stopped, taking another step back, and even with the mask, she could tell his eyes were as wide as dinner plates. Panting heavily, she moved closer to him, her body shaking as she attempted to stay upright. Psylocke raced around the man in the mask to lift Feral's arm and slide herself under the werewolf's weight. Feral narrowed her eyes further at the man in front of them and slowly started to shift back. Bleeding heavily, she leaned on Psylocke and tried desperately to stay standing.

"It's a girl?" the man in the mask squeaked.

Psylocke glared at him as well, but was distracted as Kishi started to sink to the floor. "C'mon, baby, stay with me."

"I'll... I'll be alright." Kishi murmured as she tried to get her feet back under her.

"Feral! Come in!"

"What is it Domino?"

"I'm encountering heavy resistance! Need back up!" Domino's voice sounded frantic.

"Shit! I'll be there as soon as possible, Dom." Kishi finally managed to speak, even as her knees buckled under her again.

"No, Ki-" Betsy cut herself off and glared at the man in the mask. "Feral, you have to take a minute."

"You kids ain't got a minute," the man in the mask chuckled, then pointed behind them. "She'll be up in a minute, and there's guards coming. Get her to her feet." he snapped the last.

"Who the hell are you, and why the hell should we trust you?" Psylocke snapped.

"My name's Deadpool, and you should trust me cause I'm just crazy enough to switch sides, and just sane enough to avoid pain." he tilted his head at Psylocke.

Psylocke started to snap something in return, but Kishi's hand on her shoulder stopped her. The short dark haired girl straightened up and took a deep breath, then as she shifted forms, growled angrily. Looking down at Psylocke, she nodded.

~We trust him. Dom needs help, we don't have time to fuck around.~ Feral snapped mentally, even as she crouched down on all fours and tossed her head the way they had come. ~Let's move, add him to the group.~

Psylocke looked mad enough to kill, but nodded, and moved with Feral at a fast run down the hall, hearing Deadpool's footsteps a split second behind them. Feral had to slow herself down to keep from leaving them behind as she ran back the way they had come. The gunshots were quickly in her ears and she leapt forward, putting space between herself and Psylocke, seeing Domino as the woman was crouched in the hall, with her back pressed against the wall, panting as she would turn to shoot down the hall. Feral leapt once more, landing heavily in the hall and lifting her head to roar at the guards down the hall. A few panicked and fled, but the majority steeled themselves and opened fire again. Feral leapt upwards, most of the bullets missing her harmlessly as she dove through the air. Landing in the midst of the guards she focused on the ones directly in front of her, slashing through several, even as the ones behind her turned and were opening fire on her. She roared in pain as several bullets ripped through her flesh, but she heard Domino's gun going off and felt the pain in her back stop increasing as the markswoman took out the ones focused on her. She turned to her left and started to attack those guards as well, but they were suddenly slipping to the floor unconscious, purple halo's around their heads. Feral turned to face Psylocke, but her girlfriend was focused on something further down the hall. Another group of guards was racing towards their position, and the psychic was attempting to take down as many as she could before they opened fire.

Deadpool suddenly appeared in the hall between the incoming guards and Feral. Spinning, Feral started to growl at him, but she saw him reaching to the grenades on his belt and spun back to leap for Psylocke and pivoting on one foot, spun them around the corner, even as the blast blew chunks of sheet rock and concrete down the hall towards them. Feral kept Psylocke covered until the debris died down, then lifted her head and looked around the corner. Deadpool was no where to be seen, and the hall way was completely destroyed. Feral snorted in frustration but just then, a blood covered Talon came around another corner.

~Talon!~ Feral cried mentally even as she dove towards the girl.

Talon shrugged off the concerned paw of the werewolf, shaking her head. "It's not all mine."

Feral sighed but nodded. ~Everyone dead down there?~

Talon nodded, but a pop made her look past Feral. Suddenly her claws were out and she was diving around the werewolf. Feral made a grab for her, but missed by a mile, and Talon was suddenly standing with both sets of her claws imbedded in Deadpool's chest. The red and black clad man gasped, but then chuckled down at the short girl attacking him.

"That tickles!" he laughed.

Talon looked at him like he was crazy and pulled her claws quickly out of his chest. Feral had reached the pair then, and managed to get a paw around Talon's waist, picking the small girl up and moving her away from Deadpool. Deadpool wiped the blood off his chest, revealing only cuts in the suit and the small red marks from where Talon had stabbed him.

~It's alright! He's with us!~ Feral said, setting Talon down.

Talon quirked an eyebrow up at her, but nodded. "Let's move."

Feral nodded and turned towards Domino. The woman was picking herself up off the floor and moving towards the door that they had entered. The small group headed up the stairs, getting off at the next floor. This floor was packed with lab equipment, and no guards. Feral growled and the entire group turned and headed back up. The next floor was the same, but the third floor up was a mess. There were dead guards everywhere and the sounds of gunfire and a low roar was coming from down the hall. Feral led the group towards the sound to see Warpath, Caliban and Wolverine fighting off a horde of guards. Caliban looked injured, but was fighting on. Feral and Talon joined the fight instantly, Feral landing on several at the same time, even as she slashed through the tough armor on several more. Talon used more finesse, and managed to slice quickly into the brains of three before swinging herself around and cutting the head off a fourth. Feral reminded herself that Talon was much like a cat, sharp on four out of five ends as she watched the small dark haired girl continue to kill guard after guard.

After only a few moments, the team had killed or incapacitated every guard in the room. The pile of bodies was enough to almost gag Feral, but she hid it by shaking the blood out of her fur. She felt dirty and wanted to bathe.

~It's alright...~ Psylocke whispered to her mentally. ~Block it out for now. We'll deal with it later.~

Feral shook again, getting a nasty look from Domino, but the thin woman didn't say anything to her. It was easier to hide emotion in her wolf form. It didn't have lips to frown and her eyebrows were bad at staying knitted together. She took a deep breath and shifted back to her human form, giving a final look around and finally noticing Deadpool was missing.

"What's the plan, boss?" Kishi said over the alarms.

"Where's your new acquisition, Feral?" Domino snapped.

"Shut up, Dom!" she snapped back.

"Acquisition?" Wolverine asked, giving Feral an angry look.

"She found a stray, one of the members of Weapon X, I guess she some how convinced him to help us."

"Which one?" Wolverine roared.

"Deadpool." Kishi said quietly, looking back over her shoulder at Laura and Betsy.

"Ah, fucking great. Find him, NOW!"

Kishi flinched at the second roar, and shifted quickly back into her wolf form, looking at Laura and Betsy again. Tossing her head, they followed her lead as she headed down the hall further into the base. Feral sniffed heavily and quickly found Deadpool's strange scent. Following it into a lab, it stopped suddenly, and she knew he'd disappeared.

She growled out loud, but turned to Psylocke. ~We scan this floor. He'll be around here somewhere.~

Psylocke shook her head but sighed heavily. "Alright Feral."

Feral looked at Laura, and the two locked green eyes for a long moment. "Alright. But I do not think that it is wise. We are better off staying with the rest of the group."

Feral shook her head, crouching down on to all fours. ~I understand your concern, Talon, but we need to find him. If he's as crazy as he says he might be able to help us. This base is huge, and we're not seeming to do enough damage.~

"Understood Feral." She said, and turned to exit the room.

Psylocke and Feral followed her at a quick pace, the three girls heading down a hall. Feral quickly took the lead, sniffing heavily for Deadpool's scent. There was no sign of him however and the three girls quickly found themselves lost.

Feral growled out loud and then shifted quickly back to human form. Pulling the radio from the belt that she was wearing, she pushed the button.

"Feral to Wolverine."

"Go ahead, Feral."

"What is your six?"

"Two floors up in a mass of dead bodies. What's your six? Any sign of the stray?"

Kishi growled. "No, no sign of him. Have you run into any serious resistance?"

"No. Not ye... I'll contact you back. Dom! Mov-"

The radio went dead in her hand. Growling again, she shifted back, just as she heard the clicking of high heels on the floor behind them. Spinning quickly, she saw the woman that she had left two floors down and completely unconscious. The tall, lanky, dark haired woman was smirking at them as though she knew something they didn't. Feral growled and positioned herself between the woman and Psylocke, crouched down on all fours, all the fangs in her mouth showing. The woman clicked her tongue as if calling a dog, and a noise behind the three girls made Feral turn her head. A man was crouched down, as if he had just dropped from the ceiling. He lifted his head slowly, his long dirty blonde hair falling into his wild looking brown eyes. Feral growled again, but the woman's voice came from in front of her before she had a chance to turn and face the man behind them.

"You three have run out of room..." she purred in a strange, high pitched voice. "We will kill you now."

Feral heard Talon's claws come out. ~Which one do you want?~ Her ex's mental voice came a split second later.

~I'll take the guy. The woman has long claws that come from her finger tips. Watch yourself, Talon.~ Feral answered instantly.

Without so much as a growl or any other form of warning, both Feral and Talon launched themselves towards their respective targets. Feral did a back flip, spinning in mid air to face her target. The man moved however, just as fast as she did, and hit her square in the chest with both feet as she landed on hers. Feral stumbled backwards, her paws sliding on the slick floor. He spun in mid air, landing on his feet, growled then leapt upwards. Using the metal beams of the ceiling, he swung himself around, launching himself for Feral, the sharp claws on his fingers evident in the bright light of the hall. Feral dodged out of the way, but as he landed behind her, she spun and tried to slash him with her claws. She missed by a mile, however, because as he had landed, he had launched himself upwards again, this time, his claws directed at Psylocke. Psylocke was facing away from him, and as his sharp claws scratched deeply into her back, she screamed and tried to scramble away. He pounced on her however, and as she landed heavily, face first on the floor, Feral growled and leapt for him. Psylocke wasn't without defense however, and Feral heard the man scream in pain as she attacked him with the psychic energy knife, slashing wildly at his feet as he crouched on her back. Psylocke had managed to slice deeply into his calf, and as Feral dove for him, he launched himself upwards again, but couldn't make it all the way to the rafters this time. Feral still missed however, and had to roll to avoid landing on Psylocke's back. The werewolf rolled to her feet quickly however, and spun to face the man as he came down about five feet from Psylocke. Feral snarled angrily and stalked to where she was standing over Psylocke's prone form. Psylocke rolled to her back and tried to sit up, but the werewolf was crouched over her, all four paws back on the ground.

~Feral!~ Psylocke sounded worried.

Feral launched herself suddenly for the man, her eyes wide with rage. He dove to the side, and as he did, she twisted her body, using her tail as a rudder and slashed him angrily with her forepaws. He screamed again in pain, and slammed heavily into the wall. Feral didn't waste a single second and pivoted on the one foot that she got onto the floor, launching herself back at him with the other. He was hissing in pain from the deep scratches across his stomach and chest, but still managed to launch himself upwards once more. Feral had been expecting this, and got her paw up to grab his back leg. He gasped as she pulled him fiercely downwards, slamming him into the floor with all of her strength. He groaned in pain as she spun him around, lifting him off the floor and slamming him into the wall. His scream of pain as the wall gave into the immense power that he hit it with made Feral smile in sick pleasure. She pulled him out of the wall, and turned to face the fight between Talon and the tall woman. Talon was down on the floor, long gashes all over her body as she tried desperately to block the woman's slashes. The woman moved to where she was standing over Talon, and Talon took the second to kick the woman in the stomach with her foot claw extended.

Feral roared again as the woman reacted by slashing down violently with the claws on her fingers, and nearly disemboweling Talon. Spinning once more, she flung the man in her grasp towards the woman, hitting her mark, sending both flying down the hall and through another wall. Feral, panting heavily moved quickly to Psylocke, who had managed to sit up. She was hissing in pain, but otherwise unharmed. Feral looked up to see Talon standing quickly, but holding her stomach to keep herself from falling apart, literally.

~Move!~ Feral roared mentally, even as she helped Psylocke to her feet.

The three girls moved quickly down the hall and then through a set of double doors, coming out into a huge open room. There were three platforms with large guns on them, and barrels and barrels of things marked explosive. All three girls slid to a stop, taking a split second to look over the room. Several workers stopped what they were doing and just stared at the three new occupants of the room, before one took off running towards what looked to be a panel on the wall. Before even Psylocke could react, he had hit the button. Feral roared again, launching herself forward, hearing Psylocke and Talon's footsteps behind her as she raced across the room towards the double doors on the other side. She slid to a stop for the second time as the doors busted open and her eyes went wide as she watched what was coming through the doors. The guards swarmed out of every door, a hundred of them. Feral and Talon locked eyes for a moment, before Wolverine's roar came from the top of the stairs behind them.

"Run! This way!" Feral spun and grabbed both Talon and Psylocke, each in an arm, and leapt thirty feet through the air, landing at the top of the stairs next to Wolverine.

The man wasted no time in spinning and running down the hall, and Feral put the two girls on their feet, and pushed them forwards slightly, moving quickly behind them, but continuing to glance over her shoulder to watch for other guards. As she saw the top of a helmet, and was just preparing herself to roar mentally that they should run faster, Deadpool slid from around a corner, and throwing four grenades at the top of the stairs, spun and raced towards Feral and the rest of the group as they exploded behind him. Feral felt the heat on her muzzle as the four grenades exploded, sending chunks of building flying towards them. Deadpool was pinned under a piece of the roof even as he tried to dodge it. Feral slid to a stop, her nails making a clicking noise as she scrambled to turn herself around and run back to Deadpool.

"Go!" he said in a squeaky voice. "Just abandon me! I... don't matter!" he said, the drama in his voice enough to make Feral roll her eyes in irritation.

She growled and grabbed the mercenary's arms, pulling him easily from under the huge piece of concrete. He groaned in pain as she did so, and leaned against her heavily, as his spine had been crushed under the weight of the roof.

"Hey! At least I'll be taller now!" he joked, making Feral shake her head in frustration. "But seriously, you've got to get the plane and get it off the ground now. They've got AA guns and rocket launchers. If that plane's not off the ground and away from here in like the next twenty seconds, there'll be no getting out of here."

Feral moved him forward to another hallway, then, leaning him heavily against a wall, she shifted quickly back to her human form.

"You know, you're really hot..." he murmured, delirious from pain.

Kishi shook her head and lifted his face with her hands. "Where are all the rocket launchers and the AA guns?"

His head wobbled on his shoulders and his eyes rolled back in his head. "They're... upstairs. The AA guns can be taken out with a couple of well placed grenades, but the rocket launchers will be more of a problem." he stopped talking until Kishi shook him again. "There's a whole room of them." Suddenly Kishi heard something snap in his back, and he straightened up. "Ooh! That hurt! Alright! Let's get 'em!"

Kishi started to protest, but Deadpool grabbed her wrist and teleported suddenly. They were suddenly standing on the platform that was rising with the large AA guns, towards the open ceiling. Kishi shifted forms, and Deadpool drew a few grenades from his belt. Feral leapt up onto the nearest AA gun, and ripped the gunner out of his seat, throwing him the twenty feet to the ground below. Deadpool followed along behind her, tossing a live grenade under the gun, and running quickly past it to the next one. Feral performed the same move, but this gunner had seen her coming and attempted to turn the turret towards her and fire. The large shell missed her by a long shot, but it exploded on the wall, making several barrels of some kind of explosive fluid explode with it, causing chaos on the ground floor. Feral grabbed the barrel of the AA gun and swinging herself around, jerked it downwards as the gunner fired again. The heat and the shock wave from the powerful gun knocked her upwards, but she spun in mid air and twisting her body, managed to get a paw out to slash violently at the gunner, almost cutting him in half with her claws.

Landing on the edge of the platform, she saw Deadpool throwing another grenade under the second gun, and running past it. She had to windmill her arms and flick her tail violently to keep from falling off the edge of the platform, but as soon as she had her balance, she leapt forward and to the right, launching herself after only three bounds upwards again, to take out the third gunner. But this one was a coward, and she landed in the empty seat of the AA gun as he scrambled out of it. Pausing for a split second, she heard the clinking of the grenade sliding under the gun. Leaping down off of it, she raced towards Deadpool, who had run to the edge of the platform and looked back at her, his eyes wide open in fear or shock, Feral couldn't tell which. Feral grabbed Deadpool up into her arms, and launched them off the platform, even as the third AA gun was exploding. As they flew through the air, Deadpool teleported them again, appearing in the hallway they had left previously. Looking around, Feral set Deadpool down, and pointed down the hall.

"Yeah, I know they went that way!" he snapped, taking off at a fast run down the hall.

Having to run on all fours to keep from smashing her head into the ceiling, Feral followed him. He kept turning corners, and finally they were at a door. Slamming through it, Deadpool was greeted by Wolverine's claws. But Feral came sliding out of the door a split second later and Wolverine's growl was cut short.

~Where have you been?~ Psylocke snapped, glaring at Feral.

Suddenly, gunfire started up and the entire group raced away from the door. Feral was hit in the back a few times and stumbled, but said nothing to anyone. Deadpool heard it though, and slid to a stop on the icy ground. Running back to her, he attempted to pull her arm up over his shoulders and help her move forward. Shifting back to her human form, she shivered in the cold, but leaned heavily against him, still moving forward.

"What about the rocket launchers?" she gasped through the pain.

"What about 'em? We can't do anything about them now!" he squeaked in return.

Kishi growled loudly and pulled herself to a stop. Deadpool tried to continue moving forward, but she dug her heels in.

"I'm going back." she growled.

He sighed. "Fine. I'm coming with you."

She shook her head. "Nope, sorry." And as she shifted forms again, grabbed him firmly by the neck, and snapped it quickly.

He groaned and dropped like a sack of potatoes, and Feral lifted him into her arms. Running as quickly as she could across the icy ground, she caught up quickly to the rest of the group. Within a minute, Deadpool groaned as he started to wake up, but Feral punched him again in the face, knocking him back out.

~Wolverine!~ She shouted mentally. ~Deadpool's been knocked unconscious.~ She slid to a stop on the icy ground, her thick claws digging into the ice.

Wolverine spun and growled, running back to the werewolf to grab the unconscious Deadpool. "Psylocke, Talon, keep moving!" he yelled even as he threw Deadpool over his shoulder and started running for the plane.

Feral's eyes narrowed as she watched the group run towards the plane, knowing that the rest of the team was already there. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself to do what she had to do to protect the two girls in front of her. Spinning on her paws and leaping forwards towards the base that they had just left, she made up her mind.

Talon suddenly paused as she heard the loud footsteps of the werewolf moving farther away. Spinning around, she saw the form of Feral racing away from them at full tilt. Gasping and starting to scramble towards the wolf, she slipped on the ice.

"Don't leave!" Talon screamed at the fleeing wolf form as she crawled to her knees, blood dripping down her chin as she had busted her lip when she slipped on the ice. "Please, Please don't leave me!"

Feral stopped, paws sliding on the ice under them. Head down, she turned slightly and looked back at the small dark haired girl behind her in the forest clearing. Talon stayed on her knees as the wolf stopped and looked back at her. Tears streaming from her eyes, Talon clasped her hands in front of her, silently sobbing and waiting for the wolf to come back to her. The great, black wolf's green eyes locked on Talon's for a moment before the great beast looked away and then turned back the way she was headed. Talon's second scream fell on the great black ears as the beast leapt forward and raced into the forest.

From behind Talon, even the well trained ears of the wolf couldn't hear the tiny sobs from Psylocke as the wolf ran into the woods. Psylocke sobbed for a moment, before taking a deep breath and moving towards the now screaming Talon.

"C'mon. We've got to go." she whispered, crouching down next to Talon.

Talon started to stand, and tried to throw Psylocke's hands off her shoulders. "No!" she screamed. "We're not leaving her!"

"Can you catch her? Because I certainly can't and if you love her, you'll do as she asks. She's just trying to keep you safe. That's Sinister out there, and you know what he wants with you. Is that what you want? To be captured again and get used as a weapon?" Psylocke had to raise her voice to be heard over the roaring of the jet engines behind the two girls. "To have to have Kishi harm you, or even kill you if you are on their side?" Grabbing Talon's wrist firmly, the purple haired girl jerked the much smaller mutant around to face her. "Cause I know that it would kill Kishi to have to fight you."  
The tears were gone from Psylocke's eyes now. "And I won't put her through that. Come on."

Talon started to protest again, but a roar from Wolverine stopped her. As Psylocke was pulling the short dark haired girl through the ice and snow towards the jet, Talon looked behind her at where Feral had disappeared into the forest. "I love you..." she whispered, before finally ceasing her resisting, and going quietly with Psylocke.

The jet rose high into the air, circling the forest below, giving Feral one last chance to call for help. Psylocke kept her mind firmly connected to the young girl now on her own under them. Even after Feral's many attempts to kick her out.

~Kishi, you don't have to do this...~ Psylocke "whispered" to the girl.

~Yes I do! You wouldn't understand! I can't let them get captured again! Wolverine's had enough, and Talon's... Talon's too valuable to me. Just go!~ she mentally roared the last, making Psylocke flinch.

~We can't leave you to die!~ Psylocke yelled back, even as Talon was physically shaking her.

"What's she saying? We need to go get her!" Talon screamed.

"She's not going to let us..." Psylocke said out loud.

~Betsy, just go. I'll... I'll be fine.~ Feral's "voice" cracked as Psylocke could feel the pain of the giant wolf below, just before Feral "edited" it out. ~It's getting bad down here. I love you, but get out of here!~

Psylocke blinked back tears, and opened her eyes, just as Talon was running to the window of the jet, trying to spot Kishi in the forest below. Talon's eyes were pouring tears as she watched her ex girlfriend fight off soldier after soldier, and get shot time and time again. Every shot seemed to slow the great beast, and finally, a missile was shot at the giant wolf, impacting her in the chest, and sending chunks of the wolf-girl flying everywhere. Talon screamed, and as a second missile was shot at the jet, was thrown across the plane, hitting her head hard against a control panel as Wolverine had to quickly adjust where the plane was hovering in the sky. As Talon fell unconscious to the floor of the plane, Psylocke reached out to Kishi again, forcing her way into the girl's mind.

~Kishi?~ Psylocke gasped out loud, as she felt the pain from the small girl under the plane.

~Tell... tell... her that... I loved her...~

And suddenly, the consciousness of the girl that Psylocke had cared for so much was gone. Not a feeling or emotion remained. Not the warmth of the wolf-like presence, nor the soft feeling that Kishi got when she thought about Talon remained. Nothing... just... blackness. Psylocke opened her eyes again, the world around her slowly coming back into focus as she tried to blink back the hot tears pouring from her eyes. Seeing Talon in a heap on the floor, she quickly got out of her chair, and raced across the plane to grab the girl and pull her upright into a chair. Wolverine looked back at the two girls, even as he pulled the plane higher into the sky. His concerned look made Psylocke flinch as she turned towards him, after securing Talon into the straps of the seat.

"Well?" He asked harshly.

Psylocke could only shake her head as she stood there, trembling, and still trying to fight back the tears. Wolverine's next move was the only logical one. He took the jet higher still into the sky and pushed on the thrusters. The plane roared under his touch, and took off into the sunset, heading back to base.


	7. Chapter 7

A day later, Wolverine and Deadpool appeared in the forest where the team had left Feral. Taking several hours, Wolverine finally found Feral's scent. The blood was everywhere, and Wolverine was convinced that the girl was dead. There were still a few pieces of of Feral's body scattered about, where the animals hadn't picked them up yet. Wolverine had seen Feral's mangled body after she had been hit by the missile. He knew that it would have been hard for him to survive that, and no one had ever tested Feral's healing factor to it's limits before. Besides the amount of damage that she had taken before the missile hit, and factoring in the lack of admantium to protect her from the blast, he knew that she couldn't have survived.

Dropping to his knees in the snow, he reached out and gently picked a chunk of fur up off the ground. Holding it to his chest, he tilted his head back and roared his rage to the sky. The most innocent of them had been sacrificed to Sinister. Closing his eyes, to keep back the hot tears that he hadn't felt in so many years, he stood slowly. Turning to Deadpool, who was simply standing there in shock of the emotions that the man he knew to be so unemotional was showing, he shook his head.

"She's gone." he said softly. "Let's go."

About a month later, a funeral was held for Kishi, with full military honors, courtesy of her father and Colonel Nick Fury. The Avengers appeared to pay their respects, even Bruce Banner came out, being watched carefully by both Fury and Captain America. Gabriel Jones, Kishi's father, stood quietly, tears dripping slowly out of his eyes, next to Deborah, Kishi's sobbing mother. As Wolverine walked through the crowd towards Gabriel and Deborah, he felt a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. Captain America was standing behind him, in full military regalia, with a very tired look on his face.

"Logan, don't."

Wolverine growled and shook his head. "It was my fault. They have to know the truth."

Cap sighed. "And Jones will keep on hating you. He blames you, with or without the truth. Don't make this day about you." Looking over his shoulder towards Deborah, he continued. "She's too upset to understand anything other than her daughter's gone. Let me talk to them for you. Maybe I can get Gabe calmed down a little bit."

Wolverine snarled, but nodded and turned away. As he turned, he saw Laura, standing off to the side of a group of students, by herself, her eyes filled with tears. Sighing heavily, and knowing that he would have no words to say to her, he turned again, heading towards the road through the cemetery. Taking a final glance over his shoulder, he paused. Betsy was sitting on a bench, surrounded by Clarice, Bobby, and Forge. She was sobbing just loud enough for Wolverine's sensitive ears to hear her, and the other members of her old team were attempting to console her. As he looked over the crowd, he realized that Dia was also there, standing behind her parents. She also looked as though she was crying, even though Wolverine knew that the two girls hadn't gotten along very well over the last few years. Shaking his head in realization that being in a suit, and trying to patch people's feelings up were two things he simply wasn't good at, he walked away from the crowed funeral, got on his bike and drove away.

*/*

Kishi groaned as she woke. Tilting her head, she opened her eyes slightly. The room she was in was brightly lit, so much so that it hurt her eyes. As she finally got them open, she took a look around. The room was large, and open, with several other beds and many tables with strange but sharp looking instruments on them. Realizing that she was in an operating room, she started to panic, attempting to get up off the table she was on. She found her hands and ankles were bound tightly to the table she was laying on. Thrashing wildly got her no where. Finally growling in frustration she attempted to shift forms. Her eyes snapped back open as she realized that nothing was happening. Starting to panic in earnest, she thrashed again on the bed.

"No amount of struggling will get you out of my grasp." A deep hissing voice came from the door.

Kishi's eyes narrowed and she lifted her head to look at the source of the voice. "Sinister..." she hissed as her eyes fell on the tall pale skinned man at the door.

Sinister walked slowly towards Kishi, rubbing his hands together in what could only be sheer pleasure. "You have a very unique gift, Feral, was it? A very unique gift. You are going to make an excellent test subject."

"You going to brain wash me, like you did Laura and Logan?" she growled in response.

"Defiant even in the face of certain doom. You have spunk child. No. You do not get the luxury of knowing what I am going to do to you." He hissed.

He stalked nearer to her, and reached out a gloved hand to trail his fingertips up her naked shin. Kishi shivered involuntarily at the touch, and tried to jerk away, but couldn't move with the thick bindings holding her.

She growled angrily and glared at him. "They'll come for me." she hissed in return.

Sinister tossed his head back and actually laughed at this. She hated being laughed at. "No. We destroyed you. There was no trace of your consciousness at all. I heard your friend's thoughts. You are dead to them." His nails suddenly dug into the soft flesh below her left knee cap. "They aren't coming for you. Welcome to your personal hell." he chuckled the last.

"Fuck you." she snarled.

"Such brave last words. When next you speak again, you will be calling me master."

The next month was a mass of pain and screaming. Sinister made sure to keep her awake through every surgery, every cut, every injection. Even as he cut open her skull and did something to her brain, she was awake and able to look around the room. He was changing her. After the month long attempt to kill her, he put her in a round room and taped her eyes open. She was forced to watch videos of horrible things being done to humans and animals, especially wolves and wild dogs. Most of the videos ended in people killing the other people or animals. For the first week she would sob as she was forced to watch these things. The second week she went quiet. The third week her eyes would flick around from video to video and the fourth week, she would wiggle as though she was trying to get to the tv's. After the fourth week, she was brought into a new chamber, her eyes half closed. She moaned softly as she allowed her head to loll from left to right, never opening her eyes more than a crack.

A hand on her shoulder stilled her, and she turned her head towards the feeling. A soft hissing voice came to her ears and she whimpered softly.

"So, my pet. How do we feel today?" Sinister leaned down and whispered into her ear.

She moaned again, her tongue flicking out to lick her dry lips.

"Come, come. Do not tell me that my beautiful creation cannot talk. Answer your master." he hissed.

"Y-y-yes master..." she whispered.

"Good. Now. Who is our master?"

"Lord Apocalypse." she murmured, slightly louder.

"And who are you?"

"I... I..." she paused, and finally snapped her eyes open completely, the once green orbs now a deep dark blood red. "I am Death." she snarled loudly, her mouth shifting into an evil sneer.

"Good..." Sinister hissed at her. "Good... Now arise, and take your true form."

As the bonds slipped from her wrists ankles and neck, she sat up on the bed and glanced around. The room was full of scientists who all backed away from her. She screamed at them, then began her transformation. The fur that sprouted from her body was still black, but it was short, shiny and smooth, laying closely against her skin. She grew even taller than she had been in her wolf form, reaching almost nine and a half feet tall. Her normal thick wolf shape was replaced with the thin, leggy form of a werejackal, with a long thin muzzle and long, sharply pointed ears. The jackal roared it's rage, it's blood red eyes flicking around at the frightened scientists in the room.

"Beast!" Sinister's voice hit her ears and she turned instantly, her ears laying back to the sides of her head.

She crouched down and putting her forepaws on the floor, moved to his side, lowering her head at the lifting of his hand and letting him place his hand on her head in between her ears. She whimpered softly and pushed her almost three foot long head against her master's side, pushing him a step sideways, even with as gentle as she was attempting to be.

"Good girl," he murmured, scratching behind her ears softly. "Now. What is your mission?"

She made a soft growl in her throat, and opened her jaws, smirking as she spoke. "To capture or kill all of the members of the team known as X-force, particularly Weapon-X and his clone, designation X-23."

Sinister grinned evilly as he realized that his creation was complete. "Excellent, and your secondary mission?"

"To be the first Horseman of the Apocalypse, and help our lord bring about his world order." She snarled.

"Excellent. And I have a gift for you." he removed his hand from her head and reached to a table behind him. Turning slowly, he presented a two foot long shaft to her. "Death is not complete with out her scythe."

Whimpering with excitement, her short, thin tail wagging behind her, she took the shaft from him. Sitting back on her haunches, she ran her hands over the shaft, her thumb finally finding the small button on the shaft. The shaft extended to 9 feet long, and a thin silver blade slipping from the shaft, the blade itself four feet long. The shaft was a matte flat black metal, but the blade shone in the artificial light of the operating room. She spun the blade in her paws, standing to her full height and swinging the blade in an arc around her head, then slinging the blade backwards and holding it parallel to the floor. She snarled in pure pleasure at that point, her ears perked straight forward in an aggressive stance. Lifting her head up, and gazing around the room, she again looked at Sinister.

"Thank you, master." she growled.

"Only the best for my pet. The handle is Vibranium, and the blade, pure Adamantium. Use it well, my beautiful creation." Sinister sneered in return.

She shook with excitement as she crouched back down to where she was only a foot or so taller than Sinister. "With this, I will cut X-force in half, and bring you Weapon-X." she snarled. Suddenly, as Sinister turned away, she seemed to have an idea. "Master?" she asked softly. "If I do well, may I make a request?" Her ears pinned back to the sides of her head again as she spoke.

Sinister stopped in his movements and lifted his head, watching the wall in front of him, and not turning to face his new pet. "What request?" he hissed softly.

Death's blood red eyes darted around the room for a moment before she looked at the back of her master's head and growled in a low voice. "If I bring you Weapon X alive, may I have the clone?" Her body trembled with her stress, but her voice was even.

Sinister turned back to his creation at this point, his eyes narrowed and glaring up at her. He stared at her for a long moment before finally speaking. "Why do you want it?"

Death shuddered under the glare of her master, but did not take her eyes from his. This was a test, a test of his control over her. If she could stare at him without flinching, he would have less control over her, or so she thought. "I want _her_," she slurred the word in her deep growl of a voice, "Because I want to keep her as a pet." She was not disappointed as she returned Sinister's stare, she didn't look away.

Sinister snarled at the defiance that his new pet was showing, and turned suddenly on his heel, stalking towards the entrance of the operating room. Waiving a hand in the air, he snarled, "Bring me Weapon X and I will see if I can use him. His mind is very damaged, but at the very least I can see if I can use his DNA. Bring him first, and then... then we will speak on this matter."

Death stood, watching her master leave the room, before turning and growling at the scientists still huddled in corners and behind tables in the room. Roaring once more, and chuckling softly at the cowardice of the scientists who had helped create her, she turned and stalked through the other door to the operating room. Having to duck severely to exit, she growled in frustration, but marched down the hallways. Guards would give her a wide berth, and scientists would run screaming or stand and wet themselves as she strode past. But all too soon, she found herself in front of the oversized door where she could smell the other three Horsemen. Placing a claw tip on the panel, it beeped and the door slid open, revealing a rec-room, where the other three Horsemen had gathered.

War and Pestilence were arguing over something as she entered, but they stopped, Famine joining them in staring down their new compatriot. War sneered at the tall jackal, but it was Pestilence that spoke first.

"Well, well. So Sinister's new creation was a success." she sneered.

"Careful Pestilence, it might chew your shoes." War laughed.

Death took a deep breath, and setting the scythe down, the blade leaning against the wall, snarled and suddenly leapt the length of the room, landing with both hind paws on War's chest, the full force of well over 1000 pounds slamming him backwards into the floor. He groaned with the force of the leap, and got his hands up in time to stop Death's jaws from snapping shut on his face. He strained with the power in her jaws, and was failing to stop Death from sinking closer and closer to his head with 7 inch long fangs.

"Pestilence!" he roared from under Death. "Get it off of me!"

Suddenly Death transformed back, her long, blood red hair pouring over her shoulders, and falling into War's face. His hands were on her face, and she grinned as she reached up and pulled them down. He simply looked the thin, naked girl up and down as best he could, then grinned in return.

"So... See something you like?" she murmured.

He nodded. "Yeah, and smell something too." He pulled his hands out of her grasp and tried to run them over her body, but just as he did, she suddenly stood. "Hey!" he protested.

"Ah ah ah..." she said, in a sing song voice. "Not for you to touch."

The smell of the pheromones was heavy in the room, and the other two Horsemen found themselves drawn to it. As War crawled to his knees, Death spun in a slow circle to evaluate the room. As she did though, she grinned to herself as she saw the two girls moving closer to her. Stopping and spinning around to face War as she smelled him almost on top of her, she took a step back, pushing his hands away. War pouted like a small child, and attempted to move closer still to her, but she took another step back and deactivated the pheromones. The three other Horsemen just stared at her blankly for a long moment before she grinned and turned to look at each of them.

"Now that I have your attention." she purred. "I am the leader of this little gang, and know that I can kill any one of you with a moment's notice. I will not take any lip from any of you, or you will find yourselves hanging upside down from your.. private parts, and enjoying it." she murmured the last, her pupils dilating as though she was going to activate the pheromones again.

The three other Horsemen exchanged a glance, but all three nodded, and watched their leader in silence. She grinned evilly, then flicked her fingers at the small group. "Training. We will do it now, and until I am satisfied." she snarled.

The next month was filled with training sessions. She was well beyond anything Sinister could have programmed her, to him, it was almost like she was designed to kill. As fast as she was going through guards, he soon had her switching to holographic projections of famous killer mutants. She would beat them easily, and when pitted against the other three Horsemen at once, she would beat them in a matter of minutes. She could not be beaten.

Sinister laughed to himself as he watched the giant jackal beat the Horsemen again. He'd picked the right one this time. He was sure of it.

After almost the hundredth training session, Sinister called the group into the command room. Death lead the group, dressed in her new uniform, a simple black leotard with a high collar and the back and front cut out of it, leaving the tops and bottoms of her breasts, and the top of her butt exposed. She walked in front of the rest of the Horsemen, her hips swaying widely as she sauntered in.

Sinister smirked to himself as she looked around at each of the guards as though they were prey. She was a killer, born and bred. He had chosen well. She had taken to the mind wipe like a fish to water, and took orders without question. Only one thing nagged at his mind, the fact that she had asked for the clone. It was no matter, perhaps she maintained a iota of her old feelings for the clone, but he could evaluate her reaction to the clone, and then either mind wipe her further, or perhaps even do a reprogramming. He grinned evilly as the four Horsemen approached, lifting his head and sneering at them.

"We came as you asked, master." Death smirked at him.

"Very good. I have a mission for you. We haven't found the location of the X-Force base yet, but we do know it's somewhere in California. I want you to go to Los Angeles and cause a fuss. They will come."

"Master, I hate to point out flaws in your plan, but Los Angeles is too far from X-Factor. They will deploy the X-Men to stop us. They have no knowledge of our little... party." she smirked again at the word, glancing over her shoulder at War, who grinned evilly in return. "Therefore, I would suggest San Francisco. X-Factor may be the first to respond, but as X-Force is based..." she stopped, her eyes closing suddenly. Opening her mouth in a silent scream, she almost dropped to her knees and her body doubled up, her body trembling violently, but suddenly she stopped, and straightened back up, and ran her fingers through her hair. "In California somewhere, they should be close to X-Factor. If we make it serious, they won't want to respond with only X-Factor." she continued as if nothing happened.

Sinister narrowed his eyes and glared at her, but as she stared at him, he relaxed slightly. "Very well. San Francisco it is. Your plane leaves in twenty minutes out of Hangar B. Dismissed."

Death turned and faced the rest of the Horsemen, pumping her fist in the air three times, then twirling her arm in a circle above her head. The four Horsemen filed out of the command room and directly to the designated hangar. They spent the next fifteen minutes prepping their gear. Death would extend and retract her scythe, shifting back and forth from her human form to her jackal form, over and over again. War prepared all of his guns and put his huge hammer across his back. Famine prepared her energy blades, and Pestilence prepared vial after vial of evil looking liquids. Within 20 minutes, all four Horsemen were on the plane.

Within two hours, they were landing at an abandoned air port outside of San Francisco. Climbing onto the large horse like hover crafts stored in the belly of the plane, once the doors were open, they took off out of the plane. The hover crafts were fast, and as they skimmed across the ground, Death took them in the general direction of downtown San Francisco. Within minutes, she had them slow down, and start terrorizing the people. War would swoop in and out of traffic, causing cars to crash, Pestilence would drop her vials of poisonous gas and those that contained deadly virus', and Famine would breathe on to passers by and suck the fat right off of them. People were soon screaming and fleeing from the hover crafts. Death made no move to harm any innocents, she was more interested in ripping apart X-Force.

The four Horsemen made their way slowly through the city, but all too soon, there were cop cars everywhere. Death finally took action at this point. Shifting back into her jackal form, she roared as she leapt off the hover craft, and landing heavily on the hood of the nearest police car. She pulled the scythe off of her back, extending it and swiping it through the top of the police car she had just crushed. The top of the car flew off, and the two police officers in it were decapitated. Death snarled in frustration, she had wanted the first blood that her blade would taste to be that of X-Force. But it was done now. She snarled again and leapt for the next car, crushing the roof and killing the two officers in it. Looking up as she rode the car as it slowed to a stop, she saw War and Famine killing the occupants of several other police cruisers, and Pestilence still torturing a particularly pretty civilian. Roaring in glee, she leapt off the car just before it slammed into a building, and stood up slowly, circling around to view the chaos they were creating.

"Someone! Bring me a hostage!" she roared.

Pestilence sneered at her and started dragging the woman that she was torturing, to her leader. The woman had large sores all over her face, and was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. Death growled low in her throat and crouched down to face the much shorter human. The woman closed her eyes and shivered as Death placed her nose only about a half inch from her face and sniffed deeply.

"Please! Don't kill me!"

"Ah... You will live. But you are to go to the police and tell them that they are to call X-Force for us. My partner here can make you die from far away, and we'll know within the hour if they don't show, that you didn't do as you were told, and you will die a horrible death."

"Who are you?" she squealed.

Death straightened up and slamming her scythe down, laughed evilly. "I am Death. First of the Horsemen of The Lord Apocalypse!" she roared.

Pestilence let go of the woman, and shoved her towards the approaching cruisers. The woman raced away, Death could still hear her sobbing. Turning towards the approaching cruisers, she watched in satisfaction as the woman did just as she was told. The police grabbed her as she spoke and were shoving her into the car. One of the other cruisers however, stopped, and two officers got out of it, guns drawn. Glaring quickly at Pestilence, the tall, thin woman nodded, and moved quickly back to her hover craft. War and Famine did the same at Death's growl, getting on their respective hover crafts and all three activating the shields present on the horse shaped crafts. Death however, stood to her full height and turned her attention back to the two officers with their guns drawn.

Screams of "Drop your weapon!" and "Get on the ground now!" echoed off the tall buildings. Death smirked at the weakness of the police. This was going to be like killing half dead mice. Narrowing her eyes and glaring at the two police officers, she took a step forward. The sound of the gunshots was sharp in her ears, but the faint sensation of the bullets penetrating her skin was barely registered. As the two cops emptied their clips into her chest and abdomen, she simply stood there, growling. As the fact that she wasn't going down registered with the officers, they panicked and froze in place. Taking four giant steps and then leaping into the air, she landed, smashing the front of their police cruiser, making them scramble backwards from it. Not giving off a single sound, she leaned down, using the open door of the car to hold her weight on the top of the car, to snap the neck of the officer on the right. Turning quickly, she saw the other officer fleeing, and leapt into the air again, spinning in mid air and landing, facing him. He lifted his hands to try and protect himself as she reached out and lifted him a full four feet off the ground, then tried to scream as she tilted his head with her right paw. Smirking evilly at him, she reached out with her left, and grabbed his waist. Pulling him apart easily got her covered in a spray of blood, but she threw the two pieces behind her, smashing open windows of the shops.

Turning and lifting her head to the sky to roar for a good minute, she finally stopped, and taking a deep breath, looked at her Horsemen. They had gotten back off their hover crafts and were back to terrorizing the people in the shops. War had his hammer out and was systematically smashing limbs off a man. Pestilence was targeting women and small children with the small pox virus, and Famine was poisoning food and sucking people dry.

"They'll be here with in 20 minutes!" she roared to her Horsemen.

And so, the carnage continued. Soon there was a chopper over head, and Pestilence ran to her horse to take it out. Only Death's firm grip on her shoulder stopped her. Death had transformed back and had been sitting on a curb, watching the death and destruction with bored eyes. But she stood quickly and moved to stop Pestilence as the woman went to try and destroy the chopper.

Pointing at it, Death sneered. "It's a news chopper. Leave it. They'll broadcast this on every station in the country. It'll make the Brotherhood look like a bunch of kindergarteners." she snarled.

Pestilence nodded, but just then a second chopper flew low over head. This one was clearly marked as a police chopper, and Pestilence turned to get back on her horse to take it out.

Death climbed on the back of it as Pestilence did, leaning down and whispering in her ear. "Take me up there. I want to rip those cops to pieces." she snarled.

Pestilence laughed in sadistic glee and lifted the hover craft, flying directly at the police chopper. The chopper swerved, but as it did, and Pestilence shot right past it, Death leapt off of the horse, landing on the leg of the chopper, and pulling herself up. She stood as slowly as possible, her head down, and eyes covered by her blood red bangs. Lifting her head slowly, she looked up into the frightened eyes of the three police officers in the chopper, and sneering at them, snarled softly. Suddenly she lunged forward, taking the butt of a gun in the face. She stumbled backwards, almost loosing her footing on the thin, slick, skid plate on the leg of the chopper, but grasping wildly got her a grip on the door of the chopper. Snarling again, louder this time, and reaching to her back, she pulled out the shortened scythe, twirling it in her hand. Moving as fast as lightning, she smacked the officer that had hit her in the face, three times with the short, hard metal staff, then reaching out with her other hand, undid his harness in a matter of seconds, grabbing him and throwing him from the hovering chopper. The other two tried to grab their compatriot, but he was already falling as Death stepped a foot into the chopper. One officer opened fire in the chopper, hitting Death in the chest and stomach with rounds from his automatic rifle. Death roared her rage, but caught herself again, setting her other foot into the chopper and then extending the scythe. Pulling her arm back, she timed it so that the long blade would extend right behind his head. He gave one final gasp as the blade slammed through the back of his head and came out his mouth. Death jerked the scythe towards her, cutting through the next cop's head as well. Pressing the button on the scythe and retracting it, she turned towards the pilot. He was gibbering in terror, and trying to control the chopper at the same time.

"Don't worry..." she hissed into his ear. "I don't want to be in a crashing helicopter, so I'll let you live. Land this thing, now!" she snarled the last, putting her sharp fingernails to the back of his neck.

He did as commanded, then as the chopper landed safely in the middle of the chaos on the ground, he turned around to face her. "S-s-s-so, I I I I can g-go?" he stuttered in fear.

She laughed and looked at him sideways. "And send me after your wife and pretty daughter? I think not..." she snarled, leaning suddenly forward and sinking her teeth into his cheek.

He screamed with pain as she bit a chunk out of his face, but made no move to flee. She had only just now thought of the wife and daughter trick after seeing a picture pinned to the roof of the chopper. Laughing and spitting out the piece of flesh she had ripped off his face, she used her nails to force his head back, and sinking her teeth into his neck, duplicated the move, ripping out a huge chunk of his neck. He screamed and gurgled as the blood poured out of his artery and into his throat. She was sprayed with blood again as he attempted to breath through the hole in his neck, and smiling in pleasure, she licked her lips, tasting the warm blood.

She climbed out of the chopper, leaving her victim to drown in his own blood, and stalked back towards the three other Horsemen. All four were covered in blood, and looking entirely pleased with the damage they had caused. Suddenly, the sound of a jet over head made them all turn. The plane hovered in mid air, the landing gear deployed, and then spun so the back of the plane was facing them. The loading ramp was lowered, and there, clear as day, Weapon X was glaring down at the group. The plane hovered for a long moment, then as Death turned to face it and start walking, it moved away from them slightly.

Death tilted her head and then looked over her shoulder at the other three Horsemen. "They want us to follow them." she laughed.

The entire group had a good chuckle, but as Death waived her arm in the air, they all ran to mount their hover crafts. Death pressed a button on her belt and her craft came swooping towards her. Leaping up on it, she pumped her fist in the air and then pointed to the jet. All four Horsemen sped off after it. The jet didn't go far, however, and was soon landing in an empty construction site. Death paused, it might be a trap, but it didn't matter. She pointed at the ground, held her left elbow with her right hand and spun her left hand in a circle. The other three Horsemen nodded, then swooped down, each ringing the site twice before landing their crafts in the center of the site. Death waited until she got an all clear signal from War before she landed her craft in front of theirs, closest to the Blackbird.

Dismounting from the hovercraft, Death stalked towards the plane, pausing as Weapon X descended from the back of the plane. Standing up as tall as she could, she grinned evilly as he approached, claws already unsheathed. The rest of X-Force strode from the back of the plane as well, Domino and Warpath taking flanking positions behind cover and Weapon X, Vanisher staying close to the plane, and X-23, Caliban and Deadpool striding up to stand behind Weapon X. Both the clone and Weapon X looked ready to kill, but he seemed to take a deep breath and steady himself.

"Who the fuck are you?" he growled.

Death laughed at this, a deep evil laugh that if any civilians heard it, they would have scattered like leaves in the wind. "We are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!" she laughed, then bowed slightly, taking note of the red laser that was focused on her head as she did so. So, Domino had her pegged. That wouldn't be good if the shooting started before she transformed. As she straightened back up from her low bow, she sneered at Weapon X. "I am the First Horseman. Death."

War cleared his throat, but Death held up a hand. Making a figure 8 with her fingers, she signaled the group to fan out. Turning slightly, she pointed to War, then turned her head to look at Weapon X again.

"This is War, my second in command." Turning and pointing to the other girls, she sneered evilly again. "That is Pestilence and Famine." Taking another step forward, in a saunter, she managed to get her head between X 23 and the dangerous gun of Domino's. She heard Domino hiss, and try to move, but Weapon X held up his fist. "You are the famous Weapon X," Death said softly. "And the clone... Our master, Lord Sinister, has plans for both of you." she hissed and he flinched at these words.

"I don't give a fuck who your master is, or what his plan is. _I_ plan on stopping you. In case you hadn't noticed, there's seven of us, and only four of you. I really don't think you can beat us with those odds." he growled, his eyes narrowing at the attractive figure of the girl in front of him.

She laughed, another deeply evil laugh. "Ah, but shouldn't there be nine of you?" she tilted her head and quirked her eyebrow. "Where is that one... the angel? And what of the other? Feral, I believe master said her name was? I would surely like to match powers with her... " she trailed off, her pupils dilating as she activated her pheromones.

Weapon X snarled loudly at this, and she saw him prepare himself to leap at her, but the clone was faster. X 23 leapt through the air, screaming her rage, over her adopted father and raced for Death. Death waited patiently, and just as expected, as X 23 got within 10 feet of her, she slid to a stop. Sniffing deeply, she slowly lowered her hands, the claws slipping back into her knuckles slowly, and her foot claws slowly disappearing into her boots. Death sneered at the shorter girl, then lifting her hand, crooked a finger, beckoning the girl closer.

"That's it... good girl, take a deep breath..." she said softly.

X 23 simply stared at the taller girl, her eyes wide with what seemed to be recognition, but after taking another deep breath, her eyes were wiped blank and she slumped slightly, taking several slow steps towards Death. Weapon X shouted something, and a bullet whizzed by Death's head. Death snarled and shifted forms in an instant, slamming her fist into X 23's side, throwing her half way across the construction site. Roaring her rage as a second bullet slammed into her shoulder, she glared at the group in front of her. Weapon X was racing towards her, claws extended, and a split second behind him was Deadpool, swords drawn. Domino and Warpath were both shooting like mad, trying to hit the other three Horsemen, Caliban was holding his position, and Vanisher hadn't moved from his clinging to the loading dock of the plane.

Death roared as the two men dove for her, Weapon X leaping into the air, to try and match her height. Deadpool, however, slipped to his knees at the very last second, looking to slice through her legs. Using those powerful back legs, she leapt up in the air, grabbing Weapon X by the throat and holding him at arm's length with one arm, while reaching to her back to pull the scythe out with the other. In mid air she extended the scythe, flipped head over heels, righted herself, and then landed heavily on the ground, facing Domino and Warpath. Rushing forward, she swung her scythe at Warpath, hitting her target, and slicing almost all the way through his left shoulder. He screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, even as she spun, Weapon X still in her grasp to slice at Domino. The woman with the patch around her eye managed to dodge out of the way, but was hit by the heavy body of Weapon X as Death used him as a blunt object to hit her with. Her head impacted heavily on the ground, blood pooling as she lay there, now unconscious. She spun and swung the scythe at Caliban, who had attempted to bum rush her, but just then, Weapon X dug both sets of his claws into Death's forearm, as that was all he could reach, and drug them downwards. Death roared in pain, but didn't release her hold on his throat. Caliban managed to dodge the majority of the swing, but still took a heavy slice across his chest. He dropped to the ground as Death turned. Her arm drooped slightly as she attempted to hold Weapon X, but his feet still didn't touch the ground. Weapon X grabbed her wrist, attempting to pry her hand off of his throat by force, but as he looked down at her arm, he realized that she was healing faster than he could. Within moments her shredded forearm was healed perfectly, but then he saw out of the corner of his eye, Deadpool leaping through the air towards Death's back.

Death spun as she heard Deadpool's yell. Dodging easily out of the way, she swung the scythe in an arc, lopping Deadpool's head from his shoulders. Deadpool dropped to his knees, his head flying through the air, still screaming, and landing about ten feet from the rest of his body. Death spun again, to look for the rest of her team. War was dragging X 23's body behind him as he approached, and Pestilence was helping Famine walk as she had been hit in the side with a bullet. A footstep behind her made her turn, and she saw Vanisher attempting to get back on the plane quietly. Death tilted her head at him, and smirked evilly.

"Don't you want your share of the fight?" she growled in her low, evil voice.

Caliban had crawled to Vanisher's side, and as he grasped Vanisher's ankle, Vanisher squealed in fear and disappeared with a pop of displaced air, dragging Caliban with him. Death snarled, but nothing could be done about it now. Death snarled again and looked at the man in her grasp. Weapon X was barely breathing through the tight grasp on his throat, and was struggling in vain to pry her paw off of his throat. Death pulled him closer to her face and roared into his, then lifting her arm up as high as it would go, slammed him downwards into the concrete with her full force. He groaned in pain and she roared again as she picked him up and slammed him downwards again. Snarling in pure pleasure, she slammed his now unconscious body over and over again into the ground. As her arm grew tired, she slammed him down one final time, then, standing over him, proceeded to beat him furiously with her fists. Still snarling, she hit him, over and over again, until she could no longer feel her fists, and she could see the shiny Adamantium through all of the cuts in his face. Panting heavily, she stood upright, and turned to her team. War and Pestilence were watching in enjoyment, but Famine was more pale than usual from blood loss.

Taking a deep breath, she snarled again. "Gath... Gather Deadpool. Make sure to keep his head from his body. Famine, you green?"

Famine grunted in response, shaking her head. "But I'll make it."

Death snarled and picked up Weapon X again, dragging him behind her as she stalked with the rest of her group back to the hovercrafts. Tossing her prize onto the back of the craft, she pumped her fist in the air, and the entire group took off. Within three hours, they were back at their base, and dragging their cargo behind them, dismounting from the plane. They had needed to subdue the clone three times during the trip, but Weapon X hadn't moved. Deadpool hadn't shut up, but was at least now muffled with duct tape.

The thud woke Weapon X up slightly, and he opened his eyes, but couldn't focus. A split second later, a loud growl and a hard object quickly knocked him back out again.

Death shifted back into her human form and sauntered towards Sinister.

"Master, we've returned with the weapon, and the clone." she said, her voice low and sultry.

"Good." Sinister grinned at the short girl, his expression clearly showing his pleasure with the girl. "You show great promise, my pet." he sneered. "I see I was right in making you the leader of this group. How fairs Deadpool?"

"Mhigh mere!" Deadpool's head shouted from under War's arm.

"Oh? How did that happen?"

"Ha... He was no match for me. I took down six of the seven myself."

"Ah... I see." Sinister seemed extremely pleased at this news. "So, what happened?"

Death snarled in pleasure. "We did as we were ordered," she looked back at the three other horsemen. "In San Francisco we caused a great chaos. It took no time at all before they came to us."

"So I take it you did not find their base?"

Looking back at Sinister, she snarled again. "No, master," she hissed. "But, they were so weak and unprepared that we took them out easily. Domino lay dying as we left. Warpath is missing an arm. Caliban and Vanisher disappeared." She grinned at him evilly. "X-Force is scattered, and you have Weapon X as you asked, plus the clone, and the insane mercenary as a bonus..." She let her voice trail off as she took a step towards Sinister again, hand up to place it on his arm.

Sinister laughed softly as Death placed her hand on his arm. Putting his other hand on hers, he slid her hand to where it was nestled in the crook of his arm. Walking forward, he moved to where he was standing in front of the Weapon X. Looking down at the once again stirring man, he chuckled again.

"So, the Wolverine has finally returned home. Welcome back, Weapon X."

Weapon X growled as his eyes started to focus. "Ah hell..." he groaned.

"And you'll be well taken care of. Take him away." War drug the chained Weapon X away.

"And the clone, master?" Death said, looking at the girl, bloodied and bruised on the floor.

"Hmm." Sinister glanced from X23 to Death, noting that the red head was staring hard at the damaged girl on the floor. "I believe her fate has already been decided."

Death quickly looked from X 23 to Sinister, who had an evil grin on his face. "Wh... What do you mean, Master?"

"You did ask me for her, did you not?"

Death's shocked eyes and slightly maniacal smile gave her a look of a witch. "Serious?" and after a split second pause, "Master?"

Sinister smirked at her. "You know me better then that, my pet. I never say anything I don't mean."

Bowing and letting go of Sinister's arm, Death giggled evilly. "Thank you master. I will keep it well..." she smiled and turned back to the girl on the floor.

Roaring, she shifted back into the werejackal, The long black ears were pinned back to her head as she snarled at the guards who held the chains that were binding the girl's hands and feet. The guards dropped the chains and backed up, then Death picked up the girl gently in her arms. The chains dragging behind her, she turned and stalked out of the hangar.

Moving quickly through the base, she went directly to her room, putting a claw tip to the panel. The door slid open, and she ducked to enter, being careful not to bump her precious cargo's head on the door jamb. Entering the room, she moved across to the bed in the room. Gently laying the girl down on the bed, she quickly undid the chains from the girl's wrists and ankles. Finally shifting back to her human form, she laid softly on the bed next to the still unconscious girl. Staring at the girl's face, she simply sat there, and waited for the girl to heal completely from her numerous wounds and wake up.

She didn't have to wait for long. Soon, X 23's eyes were fluttering under their lids, and in a split second, she was awake, and sitting bolt upright. Looking around, she spied her bed mate, and attempted to back away. Death placed her hand on X 23's and smiled softly.

"It's alright. You're safe." she murmured. "Are you hungry? Or thirsty? I have a meal prepared for us..." she pointed behind her to the table in the room, which was piled with food and drink.

X 23 growled, her claws sliding out of her knuckles, and suddenly moved across the bed to try and attack Death. Death simply rolled off the bed, easily avoiding the girl's slashes, and landed on her feet, spinning to where she could block the girl's next lunge, which X 23 performed just as according to Death's prediction. Death caught X 23's wrists, then spun the smaller girl around, landing her on her back, and knocking the wind from her. With one swift, fluid motion, Death pounced on X 23, landing with her knees on the girl's elbows, and her hand on the girl's throat. Knowing of the claws in X 23's feet, she leaned as far forward as she could, putting her feet on the smaller girl's thighs, and putting most of her weight on the smaller girl's throat, cutting off her oxygen, and making her lie still. Death leaned her face very close to X 23's, and whispered softly.

"I am now your master, you should do as I say." at the wide eyed glare from X 23, she continued. "I can be very soft and sweet, or I can make your life a living hell. I know your powers, and I can exploit your healing factor to control you. I'm going to pull off you now, and I'd like to talk. I want you to know what is to be expected of you, and I'd like to tell you some things that you might find important." X 23's face was turning purple from the lack of oxygen, but she nodded.

True to her word, Death pulled back slightly, releasing pressure off of X 23's neck. X 23 coughed, but made no move to attempt to rise. She was less scared of what was going on, and more scared of what they were doing to her father. She decided in a moment that it would be much easier for her to play along to attempt to get what she wanted. But as she attempted to take a deep breath to steady herself, a wave of calmness spread over her. She felt as though she was supposed to stay still and simply listen to what the woman on top of her had to say. Maybe that wasn't such a bad plan. Maybe this woman really was going to be kind to her, if she only cooperated.

"That's a girl..." Death whispered as she felt the girl take a deep breath under her. "Take a deep breath. You like that smell, don't you? Tell me how it makes you feel, my pet."

X 23 took another deep breath, closing her eyes and tilting her head forward slightly to try and get her nose closer to the smell. Death removed her hands from X 23's neck and leaned back. The smaller, raven haired girl pulled her head up, realizing quickly that the smell was coming from the woman sitting on her chest. Straining as she attempted to get her nose touching the source of the smell, she suddenly let out a whimper, much like a puppy. Death laughed, but at that point, pulled her knees off of X 23's elbows, and moved down slightly, to where she was kneeling over the thin girl's stomach, letting the girl push herself up with her elbows. X 23 whimpered again as she buried her nose in the soft skin of the stomach of the girl on top of her. Death moaned slightly and tilted her head back, grinning at the ceiling as the girl under her proved that her pheromones would work on anyone. X 23 started to wrap her arms around the bigger girl's waist, but paused and looked up at the woman still sitting on her.

"What is it my pet?" Death asked as she looked down at X 23.

"What do you want from me?" the small girl whispered, visibly trembling as she tried to keep from doing what she wanted with the beautiful woman on top of her.

"Just for you to be my pet. I promise that I will treat you as a princess, if you but do as I say. You will want for nothing, and will have more pleasure then ever imaginable." She lifted a hand to brush the back of her index finger down X 23's cheek. "All you have to do is be my good pet. I promise that you will enjoy having me as your master."

X 23 shivered at the touch, but gave her captor a confused look. "Who are you?"

Death smirked down at the girl. "I am Death. The first and most important Horseman of the Lord Apocalypse. I am your master."

"Why me?"

"Because, my pet, I've been watching you for a long time, and have desired you for just as long. You are beautiful, high spirited, deadly, and passionate. I could not ask for a better mate, nor a better pet. Now, are you done asking questions?" The raised eyebrow implied that the conversation was over. "Good. Now. Lets get you cleaned up and in your new clothes..."

Death moved quickly and got up off of X 23's stomach, standing, and dragging the girl up with her. X 23 stood, and let herself be taken into the bathing chamber of the room. Death proceeded to strip the still trembling girl, and managed to get her into the rose scented bathwater that had been poured for Death before she had gotten back. Working very slowly, Death proceeded to wash the girl in the warm water, pampering her as she'd never been pampered before. X 23 laid her head back and enjoyed the washing, moaning softly at certain touches. Death washed X 23's hair, getting all of the girl's blood out of it, and returning it back to its beautiful raven colored luster. As Death pulled the now clean girl out of the bath, she grinned with pleasure and paused to take a moment to run her hands over the naked girl's body. X 23 shivered under the touch, closing her eyes and moaning softly. Death smirked as the thin, short girl submitted under her touch. The red head took several long moments to touch the girl in the softest of places, grinning every time the thin girl would moan louder.

After a few moments of the pleasurable torture, however, the girl was trembling so hard that Death could hardly keep her standing upright, and was begging Death to stop.

"P-p-p-lea-lea-se..." X 23 whispered, her eyes half closed in pleasure.

"Please, what?" Death whispered in return, leaning down to blow her warm breath into the smaller girl's ear.

X 23 shivered again, almost falling over, and gasped for breath. "No... no... more, pl-pl-please..." she moaned.

Death gave a soft growl and took the girl's earlobe into her lips, biting down on it hard. X 23 whimpered in pain and her trembling slowed, but she made no move to pull away.

From around the earlobe, Death managed to speak. "Don't forget who you are talking to..." she growled louder and gave the girl another hard bite.

X 23 let out a small yelp of pain, and started to tremble harder than she had before. "Master..." she finally whispered.

Death immediately let go of the girl's ear and stepped back from her. "Good girl, Now. Let's get you dressed."

Grabbing the girl's hand, she took X 23 back out into the main room, and touched a panel on a wall, revealing a closet full of clothes. Waving her hand in front of the clothes, she smiled and spoke softly.

"Pick out anything you like."

X 23 walked into the closet as directed, and looked at all the clothes in amazement. They were all skimpy outfits, everything more revealing than what she had worn as a prostitute in New York. Gawking slightly, she finally chose a thin, wispy two piece outfit. It was very see through, and a pale shade of green. Death took down the outfit, and pointing back out of the closet, followed X with it as she walked backwards out of the closet. Death quickly pulled the outfit off the hangar and bending down, held the pants out so that X could step into them. X did as directed, stepping into the wispy pants, and moaning softly as Death slid them up her thighs slowly. The fabric was extremely soft and gentle against her skin. It sent a wave of pleasure down her spine as the fabric touched her skin. Once the pants were securely around X's hips, Death twitched her hand upwards, directing the smaller girl to lift her arms. X once again, did as commanded, and lifted her hands. Death gently pulled the top over X's arms, sliding it just as slowly down her arms.

Letting her fingers trail the skin on her arms, then moving her hands closer together to pull the fabric over X's head, she moved closer still to her beautiful pet. Moving her hands down with the wispy fabric, she ran her fingers down X's neck, making the girl moan in pleasure again. X shivered with the touch, and tilted her head back, leaving her neck fully exposed. Death leaned in and gently kissed the nape of X's neck. X shivered again, her body trembling under the touches that Death was giving her.

Death pushed gently against X's body, pushing her backwards towards the bed. X moved backwards as well as she could, squeaking softly as she ran into the bed. Death finally broke the contact of her lips against X's neck and pushing the girl down, made her sit on the bed. Death kneeled down in front of her, and looking up into the eyes of her pet, smiled softly.

"You will be my good pet, yes?" At X's nod she continued. "I promise to be a good master as long as you are my good pet. Right now, I need to get cleaned up myself. I don't want to get dried blood all over my pet's new clothes. You cannot leave this room. There is plenty of food and drink over there, and you are welcome to eat and drink to your heart's content. I'll only be a few minutes."

Standing, Death gave her pet a final touch on the cheek, then turned and walked quickly back into the bathroom. Showering quickly, and drying herself off just as quickly, she returned to the main room with in ten minutes. X was standing at the table, eating a piece of fruit, but turned suddenly and stared at her master with wide eyes as the door hissed open. Death smiled softly at her pet, and walked around the end of the bed to extend her hand to X. X took the larger girl's hand, and Death led her pet to another door in the room. Touching a panel on the wall, Death flared her arm out, making an extravagant gesture in front of the room that opened up.

"This is your room, pet. You will stay in here when I have to go out, or if I need to have visitors. You have a bed and a toilet, and if I have to go away for long periods of time, you will stay in here." Death said softly, pulling X closer to her to wrap her arm around the shorter girl's shoulders. "But those are the only instances. Other than those, you will stay in my bed."

X nodded at this, and wrapped her arm hesitantly around Death's waist. Death pressed the panel again, lowering the metal door, and then led her pet back to the bed. Laying the smaller girl on the bed, she took up a place over her slave, and began kissing on the girl's neck. Moving the soft kisses to her jawline, she gently nipped at the girl's soft skin, flicking her tongue out to gently lick her jawline. X arched her back, lifting her hands to the towel that Death had wrapped around herself in the bathroom, and gently removing it. Death smirked as she continued to kiss and lick the girl's jawline, but made no move to stop X's roaming hands. X gently ran her fingertips over her master's skin, sending shivers of pleasure up Death's spine. Death moved her left hand to grab firmly one of X's small soft breasts. X moaned loudly, and returned the gesture. Death smirked again, but decided that the teasing was done. With a quick move of her head, she locked lips with X, kissing the girl passionately. X returned the passion in the kiss, her nostrils flaring as she smelled the delicious odor coming off her master. She had submitted fully to the larger woman, and knew that she would be well taken care of.


	8. Chapter 8

TWO MONTHS LATER

Death snarled from her place over X 23 as the alarms went off. The loud screeching sound that was meant to wake anybody up irritated her. She was having her way with her thin, beautiful slave once more, and was not happy to be interrupted. Moving off the girl quickly, she sat on the side of the bed, leaning to where she could press the button the the speaker on her nightstand table.

"What the hell is going on?" she growled into the box.

"You're needed in cell block D. We've had an escape and Deadpool's in on it. Get down there now." Sinister's voice surprised her, but she didn't hesitate.

"Yes, Master." she said, letting go of the button and getting off the bed quickly. Moving to the closet, she opened the panel, and grabbed her uniform quickly. Turning back towards the bed, she smiled softly at her slave. "I have to go work, my pet. You must stay here. Go to your room."

X 23 looked at her master for a moment. "But, I can help..." she started.

"No, this is not something that you can do. Deadpool's helped another inmate escape, and I must stop them both. If you were there I would have to watch your every move, and I would be distracted. Maybe someday you can help me, but not right now. Go now." Death said as she put the uniform on.

It was a simple leotard, but it was much more revealing than that. The chest had been cut out of it partially showing the tops of Death's full breasts and the stomach had been cut as well, leaving Death's flat stomach and the bottom of her breasts exposed. It had a high collar that made her look almost vampire like. The back was missing as well, trailing down to where the top of her butt was exposed. Turning quickly back to the girl on the bed, who hadn't moved, she growled angrily.

"I said go!" She snapped, pointing to the door of the cage that she kept X 23 in.

X snapped to her feet and raced across the room to the cage. Moving quickly into it, she curled up into a ball on the small cot that was her bed and watched her master stalk across the room and activate the force shield behind her. Death smiled at the girl gently as she activated the force shield.

"Be good and I'll be back as soon as I can." she said as she walked away.

"About time, I have a feeling that that pet of yours is distracting you, Death." War pronounced as Death finally sauntered up to where the others were standing.

"And if you were any more of an incompetent fool, I would have to feed you personally." Death snarled as she approached. "What seems to be the problem? You all can't take down one short, old man with claws?"

Pestilence sneered back at Death. "We're not the ones to do the job. Master said to get the clone to do it."

Death snarled loudly at Pestilence. "You lie!"

"Pestilence is not lying." Sinister murmured as he walked up behind Death. She spun and faced her master, eyes wide with shock. "Where is it? I want to test its loyalty to you."

Death stared wide-eyed at Sinister for a long moment before regaining her composure. "It's confined to its room, Master. I will go get it."

"Hurry up. This trigger scent makes me nervous" War said, holding up the vial with the green liquid in it to show Death.

Death growled at War, but stalked quickly away, shaking with barely controlled rage. X 23 was hers, and not a toy to be trifled with. She slammed her hand into the control panel to open the door to her room. Sighing heavily and entering the room, she composed herself, putting a smile on her face and sauntered to the door of X 23's cage. X had already raced to the energy barrier, and was waiting for her master, visibly trembling with excitement behind the barrier.

"Hello my pet," Death purred as she walked up to the energy barrier. "It turns out you can be of use to me and my Master." she said softly as she opened the barrier.

"Anything, Master." X said, stepping forward to stand at her master's side after the energy barrier was gone.

Death grinned at her pet, wrapping an arm around X's shoulders, and directing her out the door. The pair walked in silence towards the cell block for a few moments before X finally spoke.

"What must I do, master?" she said quietly.

"I must ask you to do what you are good at my pet. I need a prisoner killed. He has captured several of our most important scientists. If he kills them, it will be hell to pay. My master has asked that I test you. If you perform this task to the desired result, I promise you that I will have a wonderful present for you." Death answered her.

X tried to stop walking, but Death's firm tug on her hand kept her moving forward. "But, Master-" she started.

But Death cut her off. "No but's. You will do this, or your punishment will be severe. As I told you before, I can be the sweetest master you could ever imagine, or the most cruel. Do not forget who I am, just for the kindness I've shown you." Death growled.

X nodded softly, and lowered her eyes to the floor as the pair approached the cell block. Sinister and the other three horsemen were standing around the door, watching the two girls approach. Sinister grinned evilly as Death approached with her pet, and then turned to War, nodding to him. War turned and opened a panel. Death watched as he inserted the vial into a gas dispenser in the wall. X was still staring at the ground, and so didn't see this. Death was thankful for that, but turned to her pet, lifting her hand to lift the girl's head to look at her master.

"Come now. Enter the room. You'll recognize the target. He's the only one in there that doesn't belong. Take him out, and I will take care of you." Death said softly.

X looked up at her master, shivering with the desire to run, but she stopped suddenly and nodded. "Yes master." she said quietly.

Death smiled at her pet, then turned the girl around and pushed her gently towards the door. X walked towards the door without hesitation, her claws slowly sliding out of her knuckles. War placed his hand on the panel to open the door for her. X walked quickly in the door, looking back as she heard the door shut behind her. Seeing Sinister's face in the glass of the door, she growled softly and turned around, scanning the room. Taking a deep breath, a strange scent entered her nose. She closed her eyes and sniffed deeply, then letting the scent and the feeling wash over her. A noise to her left stopped her, but the low growl had already started in her throat.

"Laura?" Wolverine's voice echoed in the empty room.

Wolverine stood up from behind a knocked over bench to look at his adopted daughter. The girl stood there for a long moment, her eyes slowly turning blood shot as the trigger scent forced her into a rage. Wolverine started to walk towards the girl, but then paused and sniffed the air. Smelling not only the trigger scent, but the pure unadulterated rage from the small girl, he stopped, drawing his claws back into his hands, and holding them up, trying to placate the young girl.

"Laura, calm down, kid. We can work this out, just-"

He was cut off as she screamed her rage, leaping forward to rush him, all claws extended, and hate in her eyes. Leaping over the table, she jumped through the air towards him, hands pulled back to prepare for her attack. Wolverine managed to roll out of the way, but she was a split second behind him in turning and slashing at his exposed back. Wolverine roared in pain as she cut through the thick muscle on his shoulder blades. Turning as quickly as he could, he got his hands up in time to block her next slash with her foot claw, and then take a blow to the face as she kicked him with her other foot. Landing on her hands she shoved herself up quickly, doing a backflip to spin around and come down on him with her feet again. He managed to dodge mostly out of the way of the sharp claws on her feet, but they made a pair of long gashes down his stomach as he did so. Growling in his own rage, he leapt for her as she tried to spin from the back flip and turn towards him again. He hit her mid turn, full force, knocking both her and him to the floor. She screeched loudly in indignation as she hit the ground, but managed as she was falling to finish her turn, to where she was facing him as they hit the floor. Her turn granted her another cut, this one across his throat, but it also made it much easier for Wolverine to grab her wrists. As they landed, the wind was knocked out of the young girl, and she was still for just a split second. But it was more than enough time for Wolverine to pin her wrists to the floor, and put his feet on the inside of her thighs, effectively pinning her to the ground without hurting her. She snarled and jerked, but his grip was too strong. She flailed her feet, trying to find purchase on something, but only managed to knock over a few tables. In a flash, Wolverine headbutted the girl, knocking her silly for a moment, just long enough to reach up to the table that they had landed next to. Grabbing anything he could find there, his fingers thankfully found something sharp. Growling again, he took the scalpel off the table, and brought it down to the girl's face.

"I'm sorry kid..." he muttered, before sticking the scalpel up her nostril.

Cutting violently, he sliced through both of her nostrils, making sure to damage the nasal passages enough to where the girl wouldn't be able to smell the scent in the air. She screamed in pain as she was brought to, suddenly, by the painful cuts in her nose. Blood poured from her nose, but her eyes started to clear. Wolverine kept his one hand on her wrist and with the other, he used his forearm to cut off her air supply. The girl grabbed his elbow to try and pull his forearm off her throat, but her grasp was weak. Wolverine saw the blood lust disappearing from her eyes, and finally pulled off her throat. She took a big gasp of air, but the red was completely gone from her eyes. Looking up at her adopted father, she suddenly began to sob.

Wolverine pulled off of her quickly, letting the girl go, knowing that the damage done to her nose would be effective for a while. "Laura, what the hell is going on?"

Sniffling, Laura attempted to stop her sobbing by sitting up and wiping the blood from her face. "She... she made me..." she started.

"Who made you what?" he demanded.

"Death. She said if I didn't come in here and kill you, she'd punish me."

"Who is this Death? What the fuck has she done to you?"

"My mas..." Laura blinked furiously, and Wolverine prepared for her to lunge at him again, but he could tell she wasn't smelling the trigger scent. "She was controlling me... by smell. She had this scent I couldn't get off me, but now I can't smell it." Looking around, Laura saw all of the scientists were huddled in the corner, staring at her. "You hid them?"

Wolverine nodded, then looked at the door. He could smell the trigger scent slowly being sucked upwards into the air ducts. Sinister's face was gone from the glass, and he knew he only had moments before someone else came in the door.

"C'mon, get up. DEADPOOL!" he roared the last, knowing that it was now or never.

A pop of displaced air signaled the arrival of the mutant. He looked haggard, but as he stalked towards them, Wolverine could tell he was excited about something.

"About freakin time! I'm so ready to get out of here!" he snapped.

The door to the room hissed open, and the girl with the blood red hair sauntered in. Looking directly at X 23, she smiled and started to move towards the trio. Her outfit was enough to make Wolverine stop in his tracks, if he hadn't known who the girl was. Unsheathing his claws, he pointed them at her.

"Not another fucking step!" He yelled.

Death stopped in her saunter and smiled at Wolverine. "Oh? And why's that?"

Grabbing Laura by the hair quickly, he put his claws to her neck. "Cause, you take one more step and I kill her, take her head and burn it. You'll never be able to put her back together again."

Death simply laughed. "Like you would kill your own daughter."

"She's not my daughter. She's my clone. And I don't give a fuck about anything else, other than getting the fuck outta here right now!"

Laura played the part perfectly, actually looking terrified, and trying to wriggle out of Wolverine's tight grasp. Death narrowed her eyes at the Wolverine, but stopped in her tracks and held up her hands placatingly. But after a moment she started to smile again, Laura's nose had stopped bleeding, and Death could hear her start sniffing.

Wolverine growled as he felt the girl start struggling for real, attempting to reach her master. "Deadpool! Now!" he roared, flinging the struggling girl sideways, to where Deadpool could grab her.

Deadpool did as he was directed, grabbing Laura by the wrist as she was spun about, and then with a final wink at Death, he teleported, dragging Laura and Wolverine with him, the only thing left was a final drop of blood from Laura's chin. Death roared her rage as her pet and prey escaped together, but just as suddenly as she did, an alarm went off through out the building. Sinister raced into the room to grab the girl, yanking her almost off her feet as he grabbed her wrist.

"We will deal with you later, Death. Right now I need to get all four of you out of here."

The next few minutes were a blur of racing bodies. Death, Sinister, War and several guards managed to make it out of the building. Running into the snow, they managed to avoid the majority of the blast radius, but the compound was destroyed. Anger clearly written on his normally sneering face, Sinister grabbed Death by both arms, lifting her to her feet.

"Another failed project. Why is it I can't find a single mutant who doesn't go against my training?" he said as he shook the stunned girl.

Death's head lolled on her shoulders, and she attempted to look at Sinister. "M-mas... master... I tried..." she finally murmured.

"No matter. You will be recycled. Your healing factor allows you that much."

Throwing the girl onto the ground, he stalked away, ordering guards to pick the girl up and find them a plane that hadn't been too damaged in the blast.

ONE MONTH LATER

"Kishi!" Talon raced to the lab table, her claws extended, her eyes scanning the room for hidden dangers. "Kishi, baby, wake up!" Using her claws, she ripped through the metal bands holding the thin girl's arms to the table.

Ripping the IV out of the girl's arm, she gently lifted her ex-girlfriend from the table, holding the light girl in her arms, heading back out the door that she had just come in. Looking around, she headed down the hall, back the way she had come, her nose inhaling the air for signs of enemies, coming around the corner and to the railing that she had leapt up, she looked down to see Warpath, Caliban, Deadpool and Wolverine fighting a group of soldiers hired by Sinister to stop X-Force from achieving their goal of stopping the criminal mastermind. Talon looked left and right, finally finding the stairs leading down to the ground floor. Racing to them, she ran as quickly as she could, jumping the last five stairs and running across the room to the other members of their team, arriving just as Wolverine dispatched the last of the soldiers.

"Wolverine!" she yelled, dropping to one knee as she panted for breath.

"What?" he growled, then turning, saw Talon on her knees, still clutching the unconscious body of the girl. "Oh, shit." he muttered, then turned to Deadpool. "Get her out of here!" he roared, pointing to the girl in Talon's arms.

"Ummm..." Deadpool's pause made Wolverine growl. "Well it's just, I know that Sinister-"

"Get her the fuck out of here, Wilson!" Wolverine snapped, his claws slipping from his knuckles again as he glared at the former Weapon X soldier. "That's an order."

Deadpool shrugged, "Fine. But I still don't think it's a good idea." he muttered as he moved to Talon. "Give her here."

Talon glared at Deadpool for a moment before lifting Kishi into the mercenary's arms. "Just get her back to base. We'll be there as soon as we can." She took a couple of steps back but didn't take her eyes off the face of the small girl now in Deadpool's arms. Deadpool gave Talon a wink, then disappeared with the girl.

Appearing seconds later, miraculously in the actual med-bay of the base, he laid her down on a table, and was in the process of strapping her to it, when a voice from behind him spoke.

"What's going on, who's that?" Gabriel's voice was quiet, but it still made Deadpool jump.

"Aren't you supposed to be in your cell?" Deadpool muttered, glancing over his shoulder at the man.

Gabriel approached the table, gasping as the girl's face came into sight. "Where did you find her? Is she alright?" He stopped a safe distance from the table, but close enough that he could reach out and touch her if Deadpool wasn't there.

"I don't know. Honestly, Sinister never would let a prize as valuable as this somewhere where he wasn't, or where he didn't want her to get taken back into our fold. There's probably a virus or something in her. She's not the girl we lost, and if I was a betting man, she's probably going to be the death of someone." Deadpool shrugged. "I'd bet it's not gonna be me though. I can't die." He chuckled then turned around. "Gotta get back, make sure she stays here, and I'd go back to my cell soon if I were you." and with that he disappeared.

Gabriel waited until he was sure the crazy mercenary was gone, then moved the rest of the way to the table, his hand reaching out to touch the small girl's cheek. He watched her for a while, noting that there were no marks on her, save a small piece of metal imbedded in the flesh behind her right ear. Inspecting it, he could sense that it was linked to something metallic implanted in her brain. Searching farther, he could feel that the metal, as small as it was, was coursing not only through her brain, but down into her spinal cord, almost as though it had been grafted onto her nervous system. He shook his head, then as he heard noise from the hallway, teleported back quickly to his cell.

A moment later, Wolverine, Talon, Caliban, Vanisher, Warpath, and Deadpool came into the room. Talon raced to her ex-girlfriend, still unconscious on the table, then turned to glare at Deadpool. "Why is she restrained?" she yelled.

"Cause! Like I said, she's probably dangerous! We don't have any idea what kind of crazy stuff Sinister implanted in her! She's been gone almost six months, and I know what he can do in that amount of time!" Deadpool raised his hands in defense. "Sinister isn't cool. She's got a regeneration factor just as good, if not better than yours and Logan's, and if I had to guess, she's probably got a virus or something. Just like the writers to put crap in her, then send her back to us so she can kill us all." He shook his head, as though he hadn't just said something asinine.

Laura growled at him, then made a move to undo the straps. Wolverine's hand on her shoulder stopped her however.

"As much as it pains me to say this," he growled. "Wilson's right. We don't know what they did to her, and I think that your emotions are getting in the way of your common sense. You know Sinister almost as well as I do, and you know what he could do. He knows that you are attached to her, and so would never think that she could hurt you. Don't let him win. We'll watch her, and if she wakes up, we'll go from there."

Laura looked at him, shocked that he was telling her to leave the one person that she'd give up everything to protect. "Really?" she yelped. "You want me to just sit still while you inspect her, and interrogate her?" Laura growled and shoved Wolverine with the hand that he was trying to pull hers away. "Fuck you old man. She means more to me than anything, and I'm not leaving this fucking room!"

Wolverine sighed and growled, starting to turn away before swinging back around and back-handing the girl as hard as he could. She growled angrily as she spun around, but was cut short as her head impacted with the side of the table next to Kishi's bed. She slid unconscious to the floor, blood pooling around her head where the table had cut her open. Growling angrily, he pointed to her and snapped at Warpath.

"Get her back to her damn room! Lock her in there and I don't want to hear another peep out of her! Until we get this settled, she is off-duty and confined to her quarters!" Warpath nodded, then lifted Laura, tossing her easily over his shoulder and walking out of the room quickly.

Wolverine turned to face the rest of the group. "Anybody else wanna argue?" he growled. "Until further notice, the mutant known as Feral, otherwise known as Kishi Torma is considered extremely dangerous and not to be trusted with any information. If you do not have a healing factor, clear out of this damn room, now!" Waiving his arm, the team members who didn't have healing factors vacated the room as he turned back towards the still unconscious girl on the table.

Deadpool stood beside him, looking down at the girl, uncharacteristically quiet. Wolverine simply let him stand there, but worried that the girl wouldn't ever wake up, and if she did, he worried what kind of state that she'd be in. Feral was a very valuable member of his team and as such, he was loathe to have her gone for the six months that she'd already been gone, and this new outcome, well it just left a bad taste in his mouth. Making up his mind quickly, he looked up at Deadpool.

"Get everyone together in the command center for a meeting in 10 minutes." he growled.

Deadpool just shrugged, then turned and went out of the room. Wolverine, now left alone with the girl, finally gave her a closer inspection. Noticing no real marks on her, except for the now healed red mark where the IV had been, he sighed heavily. If there was something wrong with her, he wouldn't be able to see it. Double checking the restraints, assuring himself that she wouldn't be able to get out of them, or shift forms in them, he finally left the room, locking the door behind him.

*/*

Three days later, Wolverine followed Jean Grey into the command room again. He looked even more haggard than normal, if that was possible, and practically flopped down in the chair in front of the view screen, turning it around to look at her. She sighed heavily, something she'd done a lot in the last three days, and shook her head.

"I'm serious Logan, I can't find anything. Not a virus, not a decrease in her healing factor that might indicate that she's fighting something off, not a piece of metal, not an abnormal brain scan, nothing. I would have to say that whatever Sinister had planned, he hadn't been able to complete. I have to say that we risk waking her up, talking to her and then going from there."

Wolverine growled angrily, glaring at the redhead. "But what about you not being able to sense any kind of consciousness from her? I mean, doesn't that bother you a bit?"

Jean shook her head again. "No. If she's been solidly unconscious for at least a week, she may have retreated to a point that she doesn't notice someone brushing against her mind. I wasn't intrusive, I just was inspecting. I didn't want to scare anything in there, so I just kinda poked around. I could see her memories and knowledge, and her base consciousness is still there, just unresponsive." She held up her hands. "I can't do anything else."

Wolverine sighed again, rubbing his temples with his fingertips. "Fine. But I want you there to evaluate her when we wake her. No one else knows right?"

Jean shook her head dismissively. "No. I've kept it quiet, and as far as everyone thinks, she's still dead. The funeral that we had for her almost five months ago was more than sufficient. Until we can safely say that there's nothing wrong with her, I don't want to get anyone's hopes up." she paused, looked down at the floor, then back up at Wolverine. "How is Laura holding up?"

He growled and slammed his fist down into the console. "She's pissing me off, is how she's doing. I walked into her room earlier today and its freaking covered in blood. She looks as though she hasn't eaten in three days, and like she's been pushing her healing factor to the max. There was one pool of blood that distinctly resembled someone slitting their own throat and laying there, bleeding to death." He growled again and then put his head in his hands. "I don't know what's wrong with her."

Jean gasped, then sighed. "Ok, well I'll check her out before we wake Kishi, maybe see if I can get her calmed down."

Wolverine looked up and nodded. "Yeah. We'll do it tomorrow."

Jean left the room, and Wolverine heard her greeting someone at the door. Sighing heavily, he prepared himself for the berating he was going to get from Domino as she walked in the door.


	9. Chapter 9

"Kishi?"

"C'mon girl, wake up."

"Wolverine! Gently! We talked about this!"

"Ugh... Fine. Kishi, wake up would you? Please?"

The body shifted, head tilting towards the sounds slowly. The arms tried to lift, but the restraints held them down. A moan came out of the lips, while the tongue slipped out and licked them. Finally the eyes started to flicker open, but they wouldn't stay open. After a few moments, a cough was finally followed by a weak voice.

"W-whe-ere am I?"

"You're in the X-Force base."

"W-wh... wha... what d-day is... it?"

"It's the 18th of July."

The head nodded, but the eyes barely flickered open. The head tilted from side to side, thrashing softly. Jean put her hands on the sides of the head, concentrating on the consciousness of the small girl on the table in front of her. Wolverine watched both girls carefully.

"Where's L-laura?"

"She's in her room."

"I wanna see her."

"Maybe after a while."

"Please..."

"Not right now."

Jean sighed and shook her head. "There's something..." 

"What is it?" Wolverine growled.

"Not... not sure."

"Well find out!" he snapped.

Jean closed her eyes and frowned, concentrating on the girl. Wolverine watched the redhead's eyes flicker under her eyelids, watched as small beads of sweat began to form on her head. As she touched the skin on the girl's temples, Wolverine heard and saw a spark jump from Kishi's skin to Jean's. Jean's gasp of pain made Wolverine jump to her side and grab her as she slipped off her chair.

"Jean?" Wolverine held the redhead as she jerked from the electrical jolt she had just received.

"Owww..." she whispered as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Wolverine laid her down gently, then stood back up to look at Kishi. The girl's eyes were open now, but the first thing he noticed was that the iris' were black instead of her normal dark green. The girl simply stared at him as though he were a bug, beneath her consideration. She didn't say a word, but he could tell that she was trying to figure out how to get out of the position she was in.

"Who are you?" he growled, the tips of his claws slipping from the skin on his knuckles.

The girl blinked a few times, as if considering the question. "I have no name. But if you must call me something, you may call me... Absence."

Wolverine growled angrily and extended his claws all the way. "And what the fuck do you want?"

She blinked again, then tilted her head, and smirked at Wolverine. "The destruction of X-Force, then the X-Men, then every other mutant and person that doesn't agree what Sinister is trying to do."

Wolverine growled again, this time, putting his claw tips to the girl's throat. "And if you don't make it out of this room?"

"I hardly think that you would kill this body. First of all, it is very hard to kill it, secondly, you have an emotional attachment to it, third, you would not even know how to begin to kill me, and fourth, you would want to know what I know." She smirked at him again.

"Ok, let's say you're right on a couple of those. She can be killed. Or at least put down long enough to find a way to get you out of her. What are you anyway?"

The girl tilted her head again, the smirk and black eyes starting to irritate Wolverine. "I am an AI. And good luck getting me out of her without destroying her. I am in every part of her nervous system, I cannot be removed easily or without terminating her ability to heal. Even if she could heal from my removal, she would not be the same."

Wolverine growled again. "But what about your mission? Shouldn't you want to complete it over killing her?"

"My mission is paramount, but if failure is inevitable, the destruction of the creature known as Kishi Torma, otherwise known as Feral, is an acceptable consolation prize."

Wolverine growled again, this time, pulling his claws back into his knuckles, then turning back to Jean. The redhead was starting to stir, so he lifted her up and carried her out of the room quickly. The AI was left to her own devices, so she simply scanned the room, attempting to find a way out of the bonds that she was restrained with. A small popping noise made her turn. Gabriel walked slowly towards her, stopping at arm's length and just watching her. The AI knew about his power, and knew that he would be either a great asset or a great hindrance. She smiled softly at him as she attempted to activate the body's pheromones.

"That won't work on me." he said softly.

"I was hoping to make friends with you." the AI retorted.

"No, you're wanting to use me. Computers don't have friends, that is illogical. The word friend is a human idea, you're not human."

She nodded, watching him. "You are correct. But I know that you do have feelings for this creature. I have watched you come in when no one else is in the room and touch her."

He nodded in return. "Yes, because she has been a kind person, when that was what I needed. I feel sorry for her that she has to go through this. But, you must realize that I can outsmart you."

The body smirked. "I doubt it. I am not some set of code, or a complex pattern, such as those you are used to outsmarting. I am a fully functional AI with all the human concepts and complexity. The one thing you cannot understand is the human condition. It is something so complex, that your ability can only begin to understand it."

He nodded again. "Yes, but at the same time, your understanding of the human concepts of feelings, and emotional states is limited by your creator's grasp of the subject. Sinister's grasp of the concept is hardly all-encompassing."

She tilted her head again, blinking furiously for a moment. "Perhaps." Looking back up at him, she smiled softly. "But it matters not. The reason the pheromones won't work on you is because your brain works in such a logical way that they do not override your common sense." She paused. "Fine. I will appeal to your logic, since it is so much more powerful than your emotions." Blinking a few more times, she considered the situation. "You are pretending to be held captive in a cell that you've been able to escape since the first day you arrived here. You are pretending to get help from a woman who you hate because of the fact that she is your sister and was not shunned by your parents. You surround yourself with mutants who can heal, so that just in case you decide to go back to doing what you want to do, instead of what this weak, pathetic excuse for a mutant wants you to do, you will not permanently kill one of them. You cling to the hope that the world at large will eventually stop hunting you, but even if you save a thousand mutant children, or a million human lives, you will never be accepted by these people. This girl, with all of her forgiveness, still thinks of you as a monster. She cannot even remember your name, Sylar."

The whole time the AI was talking, Gabriel simply watched her. At the last comment, he started to look away, but stopped himself. "And what are you suggesting?" he asked quietly.

"A small amount of help. Simply free this body, and I shall make sure that you are appropriately awarded by Sinister. He has always thought that you would be a great asset to Apocalypse." She smiled softly again.

"I think not." and with that, he disappeared again.

The AI sighed, but was unfazed. After about another 20 min, the door to the med-bay hissed open, but then was shut back again very quickly. Recognizing the sounds of the movement as the ex-girlfriend of the body, she shut her eyes very quickly. Listening carefully as the creature approached, she felt the small hand on her cheek. Laura sniffled and brushed her hand against the larger girl's cheek, then put her hand on the hand of the girl. The AI twitched the head, then moaned softly.

"L-laura?" she whispered.

"Oh Kishi!" Laura moaned. "I'm here baby."

"What's wrong with your dad?" the AI made the voice sound harsh and raspy. "I think he's... gone crazy."

"What has he done?" she growled.

"There's nothing wrong with me, and he won't let me go. I don't understand." a small sob completed the job.

Laura snarled in rage, then with her claws, rent the strong metal bands holding Kishi to the table. "No more baby. I know it's you, let's get you out of here."

The AI sat up, finally opening her eyes and looking at the girl. She looked as though she hadn't eaten in days, her hair was matted with dried blood, and there were red marks on her throat and wrists as though she had been cutting herself repeatedly. Laura however, had a very shocked look on her face, and was taking a step back from her ex.

"Wha... What's wrong with your eyes?" she whispered.

"Nothing, Laura." The AI said in Kishi's voice. "I'm fine." she whispered, activating the pheromones.

"Kid, I'd take a step back if I were you." Wolverine's growl came from the door.

Laura looked past Kishi at Wolverine. "Wha...?"

Kishi sighed and put her hand on Laura's shoulder. "Baby, he still thinks there's something wrong with me. He's going to put me back in those restraints." she whispered, moving closer to the girl.

Laura looked between Wolverine and Kishi, her mind being torn between the trust she had for her father and the love and pheromones of the ex in front of her. She closed her eyes, shaking violently as the emotions overwhelmed her. The AI slid her hand up Laura's neck, her thumb lingering on the red mark on her neck, then her fingers intertwined with Laura's hair and she brushed her thumb across the top of Laura's cheek.

"He's just trying to keep us apart, baby." the AI whispered.

Laura shook her head again, then pulled quickly back from Kishi. "No. You're with... with Betsy."

The AI sighed and lowered her hand, looking down at the floor. Suddenly she convulsed, dropping to one knee. Laura moved towards her, but Wolverine's growl stopped her.

"It might be another trick. Get out of here."

Laura paused, but then nodded and fled out the door. Wolverine walked through the med-bay, stopping next to the girl as she crouched there, shivering. She looked up at him, her eyes strangely shifting from black to green and back to black. Finally she moaned, closing her eyes and then stopped shaking and looked up at him. Her eyes were solidly green, but she had tears streaming from them.

"Kill me..." She whispered, trying to reach out towards him, but stopping, as if she was afraid to touch him.

"No. we'll figure this out." he growled, keeping his distance from her. She nodded, but only halfheartedly. "Get up, let's get you to another table." She nodded again, standing and moving as well as she could to get to the other table. She let Wolverine strap her to it, then sighed heavily.

"Keep Laura away from me. These pheromones are hard on her." he nodded. "And don't let anyone touch me. It has some kind of electrical charge."

"I know. It got Jean."

"I know. I tried to tell her, but I couldn't get-" she gasped and convulsed again.

Wolverine stepped back, watching her carefully. "Kishi?"

The girl's eyes opened back up, the iris' black again. "No. Sorry to disappoint."

Wolverine growled, and his claws extended again. "Ok, so now we know. Black eyes is you, green eyes is her. You're not going anywhere."

The AI sighed. "Very well. Then I guess I'll just kill her."

"No!" Wolverine snapped.

"So, then we negotiate. But you're not smart enough to talk on my level. Tony Stark."

Wolverine growled. "What?"

She sighed again. "Tony... Stark." rolling her eyes she said it like it was irritating to her. "He's the only person that this creature knows that is smart enough to communicate on my level. He's the only one that I will negotiate with." She smirked at him again. "You have 48 hours to get him here."

Wolverine growled, glaring at her. "Fine." and with that he turned and stalked out of the room.

The AI heard the door lock behind him. Smirking, she simply closed her eyes and rested.

*/*

"You want me to do what?"

"I told you Jones, I need Stark. He has to be here in the next 48 hours. One of my team's life depends on it." Wolverine growled and slammed his fist down into the console again.

"And you can't tell me what it's about?" Gabriel snapped back. "You know I bend over backwards to help you and your team, even though your... Never mind. If you can't tell me, then I can't guarantee that he'll be there in the 48."

"God damn it Jones! Don't think that I didn't die inside when that shit happened to her, but it was her choice to stay behind and defend us. Don't let someone else die because you're pissed at me because your daughter decided to sacrifice her life for me and my team."

Wolverine heard Jones sigh through the communication channel, and was glad that he couldn't see the man. "Fine. He'll be there."

"Thank..." Wolverine stopped in mid-sentence after hearing the com go dead. Sighing heavily, he turned around, hearing the soft footsteps of his daughter. "Yes?"

"What's going on?" she whispered.

He sighed again, looking up into the bright green eyes of the young girl. "It's an AI. Somehow Sinister got it implanted into her nervous system and now it is demanding to negotiate for her life." Seeing the tears form in her eyes made him want to punch something, but he restrained himself. "I don't know what else to do right now. I've got Tony Stark coming as requested, but it's probably going to be another day before he gets here. We just have to keep her isolated."

Laura shook her head, wiping away her tears roughly. "No. She's got to know we're there for her. We've got to-"

"No, goddamn it! Do not go against me on this! You are too emotionally close to the situation. You are extremely compromised by her pheromones and therefore cannot be trusted around her. If you want to argue further, I'll confine you to your quarters again."

Laura sobbed softly but turned and left the room quickly. Growling to himself, Wolverine turned back around to the com to contact Jean.

*/*

"Tell me again, why did I get dragged all the way across the country when I have lots of fun things to do in New York?" Stark chuckled. At Wolverine's growl, he sobered up however. "I guess I'm not here for pleasantries then?"

Wolverine said nothing, leading Stark instead, directly to the med-bay. Before he opened the door however, he reached into a cabinet next to the door.

Pulling out a gas mask, he handed it to Stark. "As we all know how poorly you are able to keep it in your pants for non-mutants, you'll need this." Wolverine growled as he gave the man the mask.

Stark gave him a quizzical look, but as Wolverine made no move to open the door, he put it on. "Happy now? I can hardly see."

Wolverine grunted, waved a hand, then opened the door to the med-bay. Leading Stark in, he directed him to the back of the bay where a second room was well lit. Opening that door, Stark walked in, bewildered.

"I'm not a doctor, Logan. I don't know anything about fixing-"

He was cut short as Wolverine pulled the sheet back from the body of Kishi. The girl's eyes were opened, but black instead of their normal green. Stark moved closer to her, staring in amazement.

Looking back up at Wolverine, he looked almost speechless. "I thought she was dead. Where did you find her?"

The girl looked at Stark with a smirk. "So I figured you'd put some kind of breathing apparatus on him, Logan. No matter. He will be highly intrigued by my proposal." she almost laughed.

"Tony, this is not the girl you know. This is an AI, calling itself Absence. She is in total control of Kishi Torma, for the most part, and she wants to negotiate with you." Wolverine said, looking at the girl the whole time.

"Thank you, Logan. That will be all." She said, finally looking at him and grinning evilly.

Wolverine made no move to leave the room, but the girl turned her attention back to Stark. He leaned in, about to touch her when Wolverine growled.

"Don't touch her with your bare skin. It's got some kind of electrical current that it can pass through skin contact and knock your ass out." he snapped.

"Don't be silly, Logan. I don't want him unconscious, I can't talk to him that way." she laughed.

Wolverine growled, but Tony had gotten the hint. "Ok, so you want to negotiate? What's at stake?"

Lifting her head slightly, she narrowed her eyes at him. "This little girl's life... again."

"Ok, and what's to stop us from just pulling you out?"

"First of all, as I stated to Logan, you cannot remove me without killing her." she rolled her eyes. "Secondly, that I have information that you might want in your fight to stop Sinister from bringing back a certain someone that everyone in this room fought very hard to defeat. And third, the chance to match wits with something smarter than you." She smirked at him again.

Tony leaned back, pondering the situation. "And why would you bother negotiating? You have a pre-programmed set of objectives. If you cannot fulfill those objectives, it would be in your best interest not to pass on information that your creator installed in you. Unless..." he paused, one hand on his chin, the other wiggling his fingers in mid-air. "You have a self-preservation protocol that is overriding everything else." Turning to Logan, he continued. "That's it. This AI is trying to preserve itself. It may be willing to kill Kishi in order to complete it's objectives, but it doesn't want to kill itself. It can't do anything by itself, it has to have a body to perform even the most meaningless tasks. So without her, it would be helpless. And I think that the bluff about killing Kishi with the removal of it, is not a bluff."

The AI nodded. "You would be correct. I have control of a simple capsule of positively charged Radon atoms. These, as well as the electrical current that I can give off would successfully disable her healing factor... permanently."

Stark nodded in return. "That would do it. But it would kill it too. That's why it is loathe to do it. The self-preservation objective is higher on it's list than it's other objectives. Therefore, if it thinks that it can negotiate with me to preserve itself, it's gonna do it. That's why it wanted me. It wanted to negotiate with someone that is smart enough to understand what it wants." Stark turned and looked at Wolverine. "I'll be fine. I understand what it is now, the pheromones won't affect me. Just... give us a few minutes would you? No more than 10."

Wolverine growled angrily, but at Tony's wink, he turned and stormed out of the room. "Ten minutes. Not a second longer." he snarled as the med-bay door shut behind him.

Tony turned back to the AI, removing the gas mask, and then setting it on the table behind him. Running his hands through his hair, he sighed heavily. "You know you're asking a lot of me, right?"

The AI smirked. "I'm not sorry. You are one of the people on Sinister's list of possible subjects who might understand what he is trying to do. You are very... right minded, and as such, would be willing to listen instead of always just trying to stop him. He does have some very logical ideas you know, ones that would make what the X-Men are trying to do look like a child's dream." At Tony's inclination of his head, she continued. "All we want is to unite the world. Unfortunately, most people will not understand that to be united means to have one government, one religion and one race. Now Sinister is not an idiot, he knows that the humans who have not made the evolutionary jump to the X-gene should not be forced to. We've seen too many experiments with that go wrong. Just look at what Magneto did to that Senator. But, those humans, who are biologically impaired, to use the nicest term, should not be considered more important that those, such as the girl on this table, that are not. The humans have had their run and they have failed to keep this planet. Mutants are now the ruling species. Granted, humans have created powerful technologies that can and often do beat the mutant powers. However, I know of several mutants that put in arm's reach of a piece of tech, can disable it, or make it do whatever they want. These kinds of mutants unfortunately, right now are few and far between. But given several more years of evolution, they may become more and more common."

Tony held up his hand. "Listen. I don't want to hear Sinister's speech right now. I came here to negotiate for this girl's life. What is it you are wanting?"

The AI inclined her head again. "Very well. I'll skip right to it. I want a new host. I would prefer biological, but if that is unavailable, I want a fully mechanical and fully articulated metal body. Much like your suit, but... more options." she smiled at him.

He sighed. "I figured it would be something like that. You must realize however, that I cannot simply hand over that kind of tech to Sinister. If I were to build you something like that, it would be totally against everything I am to simply hand it over to someone who would use it to create things that would harm the delicate balance being maintained by people like the Professor, and even this rag-tag team here. People like myself and Cap. We are the people fighting to maintain order and let people choose. They may choose the wrong path, but that's still their right." He sighed. "And besides. It would take me several months, if not a couple of years to design and create the tech that you are talking about. I assume that by fully articulated you mean cybernetics? Perhaps even an android type? Something along those lines?"

She nodded and smiled. "Yes. Though the term artificial person would not apply to me. I would still be an AI, something much smarter. And without the desire to be human." She smirked at him again. "And yes, I know it would by my calculations take you almost exactly two years to the day to create that kind of tech. I would agree to cooperate with Weapon X's program here, I could even be persuaded to allow her free rein. It would be as if I wasn't here. Though I would need to visit you every so often to give you information and to keep you on track with the creation."

He sighed, putting his head in his hands, and rubbing his temples with his knuckles. "Fine." he muttered. Looking back up quickly, he continued. "But this is the deal. I make you what you need, but you give her back, I will have you meet with me once a month, but you may never show your true self. It will be as though you were never there. I will have the telepath, Jean Grey wipe the memories of everyone here, everyone that has seen you, and then I will start work on your creation, and you will allow her to come to the forefront of her body. You will be back stage as it were, and only a spectator. If I get wind of one incident where you came out, the whole deal is off and I will find a way to disable you... permanently."

The AI sighed, but nodded. "Agreed. I will do as you ask, and for the next two years, approximately, I will simply let her be here. Try to double cross me and I will destroy this body."

"Then we've negotiated. Be gone."

As the black eyes started to close, the AI muttered one final parting shot. "I'll see you soon, Tony."

Kishi's body convulsed and her eyes flickered furiously under her eyelids. Tony quickly untied the girl, and then took a step back, just to see what would happen. He saw what looked to be blood dripping out of the girl's right ear, but it stopped just as quickly as it started. Kishi moaned softly, then opened her eyes suddenly, gasping harshly. As Stark watched, the black in her eyes faded slowly, leaving only a small star shape of black around the pupil of the left eye. Leaning forward, he helped her sit up, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

"Are you alright?" he asked her softly.

"I-I... What day is it?" Kishi murmured, looking at Tony as though he was crazy.

"July 20th, 2010." Tony said, clearing his throat as he found the fragile girl very pliable in his arms.

"Wha... It can't be!" she squeaked. "How long... how long have I been gone?"

Sighing heavily, Tony leaned her back against the bed. "Almost six months."

"Serious?" she asked, still incredulous.

He nodded, and cleared his throat again. "Yes. I'm sorry. But you're back now." He murmured.

She shook her head and put her hands to her eyes, rubbing them, slowly. "Whe... where's Laura?"

"She's here, she's safe. You can see her in a little bit, but rest now." He said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "You've been out for a long time, you're going to be a little discombobulated. Just rest. I'll get her for you." And with that, he patted her on the shoulder gently, and turned to leave the med-bay.

Kishi continued to rub her eyes for a long moment before she finally looked up. Gasping softly, she looked up into the eyes of Gabriel, his concerned look slightly scaring her.

"Gabriel?" she whispered softly.

"Is it really you?" he murmured, moving a bit closer to the girl on the table.

She looked at him confused. "Who else would I be?"

"Never mind. I'm just glad you're back. How do you feel?"

She shook her head and then went back to rubbing her eyes. "Like someone's been poking around in my brain. Have I really been gone that long?"

He nodded, and then walked to the end of the bed, putting his hand down on her ankle. "Yeah. And we thought you were dead. Psylocke told us that she lost contact with you, and couldn't even sense you anymore. I scanned for you, and I couldn't find you either. I've been very upset... I've...been very lost." He swallowed hard as he could, fighting down the lump in his throat.

Kishi sighed heavily and frowned. Finally stopping the rubbing of her eyes she looked back up at Gabriel. "I'm sorry. But at least you must be making progress, right?" looking slightly confused at how she had worded that sentence, she shook her head but continued. "They're letting you out of the collar now and your cell, right?"

Gabriel chuckled and shook his head. "No. I'm kinda, doing this on my own. I didn't ask for anyone's permission."

Kishi stared at him for a moment before laughing and shaking her head again. "Silly goose. Well as long as you feel you can do it, then you're definitely making progress. That's a good thing."

Gabriel nodded, but then suddenly looked at the door. "I have to go, Wolverine's coming. I'll see you again soon, promise." and with that there was another pop just as the med bay door hissed open, and he disappeared.

Wolverine growled as he saw Kishi sitting up, not restrained, but relaxed a bit as the young girl looked at him with mostly green eyes. The black star around her left eye made him nervous, but looking at Tony's relaxed stance, he decided that it was ok. Walking closer to the girl, he looked at her, concern on his face.

"You alright, kid?" he asked her.

She nodded softly and smiled up at him. "I feel like my brain is mushy, but other than that I'm ok."

"Good. You wanna tell me where you've been for the last six months?" he snapped.

"I... I honestly don't know, Logan. I swear I feel like it's only been one day since it happened. I don't have a single memory, other than getting hit by that missile." she said after a moment's pause.

Wolverine growled and shook his head. "You're serious?"

"Yes. I don't know what happened."

Tony put his hand on Wolverine's shoulder. "I think it's probably best to get a psychic in here to go through her memories." Jerking his head towards the door, he turned. "I'll go get Jean."

Wolverine nodded, and Tony left. "Kishi, your parents think... Everyone thinks you're dead." He said quietly.

Kishi just stared at him, open-mouthed. "Serious?" she asked, incredulously.

He nodded again. "You were... in pieces. I couldn't find a chunk of you big enough to bury. I searched for hours. Deadpool helped even. They held a funeral for you about five months ago. Your parents have been heart broken. Dia's been pulled back home and off X-Factor. They hardly let her leave the house from the reports I've been given, and Jones... Well he just went back to work about a month ago." he shook his head. "Betsy can only manage to leave the house for X-men blue team about once a month, and Laura... Laura's thrown herself into the job, but won't hardly speak. I haven't seen her smile or laugh once since you've been gone." Looking at her sideways, he suddenly seemed to think of something. "By the way, what happened a minute ago? Where's the-"

"Wolverine!" Tony said loudly as he walked back into the med bay, Jean a step behind him. "Jean needs to talk to you."

Jean nodded to Kishi and smiled at Wolverine. "Logan, I just need to speak with you for a moment." she said, gesturing for Wolverine to follow her as she turned towards the med bay door.

Wolverine started to say something else, but his eyes went fuzzy like a telepath's when they were talking mentally. He nodded and turned towards Jean, following her out of the room quickly. Tony smiled at Kishi as he turned back towards her.

"You know, you really are pretty." he said, in typical Stark fashion. "If you're ever in New York, come see me. I'll show you the city and a good time." he handed her his card, winking at her.

Kishi looked up at him, confused, but took the card that was offered to her. As she took it, he said good bye and turned to walk out of the room. Kishi shook her head and chuckled softly, leaning over the side of the bed to place the card on the table next to it. She sat in silence for a while, rubbing her arms, trying to get the warmth that the sterile empty med bay seemed to draw out of her. After a few moments though, Wolverine came back into the room, followed closely by Jean. Wolverine looked dazed about something, but Jean smiled softly at the young girl on the bed.

"How do you feel?" she said softly as she approached the bed.

"Like I told Logan, my brain feels mushy. And I feel like I've been... I don't know, running or something. I feel more physically fit. It's weird..."

Jean nodded. "Well, we'll see if we can't get into those memories of yours soon. But, I think if you're up to it, I've got two girls that are going to be ecstatic to see you."

Kishi grinned hugely at this, and nodded fiercely. "Yes!"

Jean laughed slightly. "Good. I'll call Betsy and tell her I've got a surprise for her. Laura I'll go get now. She was the one who found you, so she already knows. And I'd suggest preparing to tell your parents. You may need to make a trip to New York soon..." she said, turning to head out of the room.

Kishi giggled, and clapped her hands together. Looking at Wolverine, she continued grinning. "You ok?" she asked, noticing that he still looked dazed.

Wolverine cleared his throat, and shook his head. "Yeah, yeah. Fine kid. I'll make the arrangements for you to go to New York whenever you're ready. You just let me know. You'll be off active duty for quite a while, so no worries about that. Just try to rest. I'm sure there's lots of people who want to see you, but you'll need to take it easy for a while."

Kishi looked at him confused. "Wait. New York? Mom still lives in Dayton doesn't she?"

"It's a long story kid. I'll let them explain to you later." Wolverine growled.

As the med bay door slid open, both Kishi and Wolverine turned towards it. Laura came racing in, throwing herself into Kishi's open arms. The two girls giggled joyfully and Wolverine turned and slipped out of the med bay as they did. Laura finally pulled back from Kishi, and grinned at the bigger girl.

"You alright?" Laura asked.

"Of course! My brain feels like we've just been through Headmistress Frost's History class, but other than that, I'm ok." Kishi nodded in return. "Have I really been gone for six months?"

"Damn near. But I'm glad you're back." Laura blushed slightly as she said it.

Kishi brushed the hair away from Laura's eyes and smiled softly at her ex. "Me too."

Suddenly Kishi flinched and gasped, closing her eyes as a forceful mental presence pushed its way into her mind.

~KISHI!~ The scream was Betsy's, and was meant to be forceful.

~I'm here!~ Kishi called back.

~Oh my god. Please don't be a dream...~ Betsy's mental presence sounded frantic.

~I'm not a dream, Betsy. ~ Kishi half chuckled out loud, making Laura look at her sideways. "It's Betsy." she said, excitedly.

Laura managed to hide her look of disappointment.

~Thank god. I've... never mind. I'll be there in an hour or so.~ Betsy's mental presence dropped some of it's hysteria.

~Ok. I'll be here.~ Kishi felt Betsy retreat from her mind, but could feel the mental equivalent of the purple haired girl holding her hand.

Kishi smiled softly, looking at Laura, who quickly changed her look of disappointment into a look of pleasure. "So tell me," Kishi started. "What have I missed?"


End file.
